15 Most Wanted Skills

[Matt Smith]

Hi all

Came across an article and link in the January 2011 issue of NFU Countryside magazine entitled "Making the right choice - apprenticeship or degree course". One of the things it mentioned was a report from the "Environmental Research Funder's Forum" (tbh - never heard of them) that looked at the "skills gaps forecast in (the environmental sector) in the next 10 years and outlined the postgraduate and professional skills that will be requred in the sector".

According to the report, the 15 "most wanted skills" are:

1. Modelling
2. Multi-disciplinarity
3. Data Management
4. Numeracy
5. Translating Research
6. Fieldwork
7. Risk and Uncertainty
8. Taxonomy and Systematics
9. Soil Science
10. Environmental Epidemiology
11. Sustainability Science and Planning
12. Microbiology
13. Food Supply
14. Energy Supply
15. Freshwater Science

Apparently the report took 2 years to compile, which sounds to me like a cosy grant funded academic project. A quick look through does seem to suggest that is more focused on the more "academic" end of conservation/ environmental sciences, though I am glad to see both "Fieldwork" and "Taxonmy" do make it onto the list.

As the report says - "IF YOU ARE…. thinking about undertaking training and you want to improve your employability, then this report shows you the skills that employers want. You might also use it to compare different training options to see which will give you the widest number of skills that are valued by employers." - so worth a read at least of you are wondering what courses or training you might be looking for.

The report can be found here.

Matt

[thunder]

Odd that though they include numeracy they don't include literacy

Presentation skills (verbal and written) might be useful as well!

And try presenting that list of skills to any prospective employer without a driving licence. "Thank you, we'll let you know"

henrya

[Deb84]

Thanks for posting this. I came here for the first time in a couple of years today to see whether anyone could offer any insight into whether I should do a masters at Manchester Uni in Environmental Monitoring, Modelling and Reconstruction...I see this as a sign that I may be considering the right kind of direction to go in!

[darrenm]

what i have found quite shocking in recent years through meeting many recent graduates whilst working in Conservation is poor identification skills in the field and/or tunnel vison when they just focus on particular things that interest them. Maybe it's time to bring back all round Naturalists Not having a dig but feel that is what is lacking in many.

[APC]

The standard of our tea making staff has dropped to unacceptable standards. Please also consider some sort of courses in appropriate milkyness and sugar concentration. These are lacking, fundamental key skills which would be laughable if they were not so serious.

Other than that, communication skills are highly underrated. Being knowledgeable about dragonflies doesn't help when you can't convince the yobs on your site that they would like to volunteer for you. Talking with everyone without any form of prejudice can virtually eliminate antisocial behaviour thus bringing you an increased amount of time to work productively.

[Fuzzy-felt bloke]

what i have found quite shocking in recent years through meeting many recent graduates whilst working in Conservation is poor identification skills in the field and/or tunnel vison when they just focus on particular things that interest them. Maybe it's time to bring back all round Naturalists Not having a dig but feel that is what is lacking in many.

This is an on going problem with university graduates and something that’s not going to change soon. For a university to validate a module it needs to meet strict grading criteria that shows the student academic ability at level 5 and above, the problem with practical skills such as grass identification, this can not be assessed at level 5 and here lies the problem.

University courses can get around this by including none assessed parts within a module, but this would be an add on so managers will look at this as increasing the cost of the course, so they tend to discourage this as much as possible. In the past I have tried my hardest to included as much practical elements into the degree courses that I managed, but the validation boards can be very unforgiving.

It is easy to criticise but educators do try to do the best for their students.

Fuzzy-Felt Bloke

[darrenm]

i was pointing out an observation through seeing it at first hand over the last few years and working along side them and not being critical about the standard of education these people are getting but feel like a lot of others that it does not bode well for the future if a lot of Conservation graduates cannot tell the difference between even some of the common species in the field. How do these people hope to draw up management plans and help to maintain species if they cannot tell them apart or identify them.

[tom00_uk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy-felt bloke

This is an on going problem with university graduates and something that’s not going to change soon. For a university to validate a module it needs to meet strict grading criteria that shows the student academic ability at level 5 and above, the problem with practical skills such as grass identification, this can not be assessed at level 5 and here lies the problem.

University courses can get around this by including none assessed parts within a module, but this would be an add on so managers will look at this as increasing the cost of the course, so they tend to discourage this as much as possible. In the past I have tried my hardest to included as much practical elements into the degree courses that I managed, but the validation boards can be very unforgiving.

It is easy to criticise but educators do try to do the best for their students.

Fuzzy-Felt Bloke

we had a timed exam where a series of species were placed out for identification, be they trees in winter, fish from the pickling jars that lined the corridors etc.

there were easy ones that if you had tuned up infrequently you should still be able to recognise through to harder examples that closely resembled a different specimen further along the line. My year had a number of practical days out side and only one residential segment that was in the uk. the next year had a residential in the uk and then in subsequent years the opportunity if you could afford it to go on foreign trips as the expense of the extra local patch trips being reduced.

unfortunately universities are run as a business and courses that involve a practical element that's not at a computer tend to have extra costs attached so they often run them with the absolute minimum to get them classed as a degree, msc etc