Addressing the capacity crisis in the ecology profession - vocational courses, volunteering and vision.

Summary

There is a skills crisis in the ecology profession, with many employers struggling to fill vacant posts. Recruitment today relies on graduates and post-graduates in ecology and related subjects. One way to address the gap is to improve pathways into ecology jobs for young people with vocational qualification and for mid-career changers. In this webinar, we present policy recommendations for governments and regulators. We will also share practical steps that employers can take right now - which we will explore through a live recruitment simulation.

This webinar will be hosted by Alina Congreve and Neil Smith. Alina is a sustainability and planning professional with 18 years experience working in higher education, public policy and innovation.
Her main areas of expertise is: spatial planning, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, ecosystem services and natural capital and design and delivery of professional and higher education programmes.
Alina is the project manager of a large Wellcome Trust grant about health and wellbeing in the built environment. Other recent projects include: green infrastructure roadmapping for Swansea University; sustainable tourism post-Covid with University of Hertfordshire; and vocational routes into ecology jobs for CIEEM and LANTRA. She has an MSc from UCL in Conservation and a PhD from King’s. She holds professional membership of the RTPI.

Neil is a director at Resources for Change (R4C), a consultancy which has been working for 26 years in the environment and community sectors on research, evaluation, consultation and organisational development. Prior to this, he worked for eight years at the Cabinet Office in two main roles - leading the social action team, then the regulation team with a particular focus on environmental regulation. He is currently working with Kent Wildlife Trust on the reintroduction of bison to the Blean Woods, and with Natural England on the potential designation of the Yorkshire Wolds as an AONB.

Description

To address climate change and restore nature, will we need many more people with ecology skills. Ecologists are needed to create new woodlands, restore peatbogs, reduce flooding with nature-based approaches, and green our towns and cities. However, ecology or nature based green jobs are not getting the same urgency from governments and training regulators as other green jobs such as renewable energy or retrofitting buildings.

Through seven workshops, we explored the recruitment and the skills gap with a wide range of ecology employers: local government; government regulators; private sector consultancies; and environmental NGOs. Participants came from large, medium sized and smaller organisations, across the UK and Ireland. We analysed over 2000 entry level ecology job advertisements, gaining further insights into skills and recruitment issues in the sector. We also heard first hand about the challenges people faced in trying to secure their first ecology job.

There are funding streams and training models that other sectors are using which could be applied to ecology. We have policy recommendations for governments and regulators. We also have suggestions to better align what is taught on existing vocational courses and degree courses with the current and future needs of the sector. There are also practical steps that employers can take right now, without waiting for any changes to government policies.

Who Should Attend?

The webinar is especially relevant for people who lead teams of ecologists and those involved in the recruitment of ecologists. It is also highly relevant for people working in universities, FE colleges, private training providers and accreditation bodies.

Knowledge Level

Suitable for all

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