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Environmental Conservation Skills Needs

Identifying your training and development needs.

 

The environment is constantly changing at global, national and local levels.  Improved awareness, understanding and active conservation management are closely linked with sustainable communities and economic prosperity.

Conservation organisations have many needs, but some of the more important ones include:

A Strong, Unified ‘Voice’

Conservation organisations range from large public departments and international charities to local authorities, commercial consultancies and small community projects.  The industry is extremely diverse and needs to deliver consistent key messages so everyone is aware and understands the importance of conservation. 

This will help to influence policies and funding at both political and local community levels.  It will also help to improve compliance with legislation such as the Marine and Coastal Access Act and the Water Framework Directive.

Improved Industry Information

Official statistics state there are around 23,000 people employed in environmental conservation and 200,000 volunteers. But we believe these figures significantly underestimate the actual numbers as research often does not show the importance of environmental conservation. 

This can be due to economic measures that fail to consider biodiversity, community cohesion, social inclusion, and health and welfare benefits.  It may also result from conservation jobs being ‘hidden’ in research data, for example in local authorities or in other land-based industries such as agriculture, where conservation is not the main focus of the business. What’s more, the enormous contribution to conservation by volunteers is also often understated.

Support for Development

Environmental conservation organisations often rely on project-based support for development.  For example, the excellent skills initiatives supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, including those aiming to address the field ecology ‘skills gap’.  Support from ‘mainstream’ budgets is limited, with Apprenticeships funding failing to address the full costs of rural delivery and limited support for ‘bite-sized’ training.  This is a particular issue for older people - career changers - wanting to work in conservation .
 
Our environmental conservation factsheet has lots of information about the industry. View more.