The Big Picture

Growth in Environmental Careers

Describes the growth in environmental careers and applicants for environmental jobs

 

There are an increasing number of jobs for environmental professionals. The environmental careers market is set to become still larger and more diverse.

It is driven by a unique combination of evolving statutory regulations and the growing awareness of the need for sustainable development.

However, although environmental careers, especially in businesses and consultancies, are a growth area there will probably not be the vast increase in demand for environmental careers that was once thought.

Growth in applicants for environmental jobs

The number of environmental graduates in the UK continues to increase year on year.

Most employers are still looking for candidates with several year’s work experience – even at the most junior levels.

So recent graduates still find it difficult to secure that essential first post and many end up drifting into unrelated professions.

However things are improving and those with 6 to 12 month’s experience, through placements or volunteering now have more options.

It is also important to recognise that all jobs and careers can practice and promote sustainable development.

Environmental management and resource efficiency will be included in the work of other more traditional careers. In the same way health and safety, equal opportunities, welfare and quality management have already become fully integrated with all jobs.

All job applications and interviews are likely to include these aspects of safety, welfare, fairness, quality and efficiency.

Environmental careers take off

The growth in environmental careers in recent years has been dramatic.

Since the Rio Earth Summit produced the blueprint for a more sustainable planet - Agenda 21 - in 1992, many employers have realised that developing more efficient processes, using fewer resources and producing less waste is the only realistic - and responsible - way to run a business.

At the same time, customers are demanding products and services that are produced in more sustainable ways.

Local authorities recognise this public demand. They are responsible for vital areas of people’s lives such as education, health, housing, waste disposal and transport. This gives them huge opportunities for improving the environment in which people live and work. It also gives them opportunities to involve people in deciding how they wanted that environment to be. Now hundreds of thousands of local councils worldwide have developed their own plans for more sustainable communities - Local Agenda 21s.

Now important considerations like job security, decent salaries, pension schemes and career structures are seen as part of the package, just as they would be for any other job sector such as engineering, insurance or teaching.

New areas of expertise are developing, such as environmental auditing and assessment, environmental management and environmental engineering. They in turn generate the formation of new professional bodies or associations to represent them, such as the Society for the Environment. They create more recognised qualifications and career structures, so reinforcing the status of environmental careers.

These developments have given rise to the environmental career.

1.5 million people work in the environmental and land-based sector. Over 25,000 new people are needed in the next 5 years. LANTRA, The Sector Skills Council for the Environmental and Land-based Sector.

Green policies could create an additional one million UK jobs during the first ten years of a Green industrial revolution. UK Green Party, 2001

Creating an environmentally sustainable economy has already generated an estimated 14 million jobs worldwide, with the promise of millions more in the 21st century. Worldwatch Institute, a US research organisation. Saving the Environment – A Jobs engine for the 21st Century.

The world youth population grew by 10.5% over the past ten years while youth employment grew by only 0.2%. International Labour Organisation