Winners and finalists : Environment Agency

Company background

We are the environmental regulator for England and Wales. The work placement was arranged between MMU and the development control team within the flood risk management function of the Environment Agency in the north west region.

Total number of employees

Approx 12,000

Operational countries

England & Wales

Challenge

There is a skills shortage in the flood risk management industry, and recruitment of suitable candidates has become very difficult. Unfortunately many of the applicants for vacancies do not have sufficient technical skills for the job and only a few stand out as being worthy of invitation for an interview. By providing a sandwich student placement and also continuing to discuss the issues with Manchester Metropolitan University, we are hoping that a better quality of candidate will emerge for permanent vacancies in the future. If the candidate better understands what we in the Environment Agency do and what we need, then it is more likely we will get someone more suitable to the role.

Name of work experience scheme

This is an arrangement for work experience with the development control team at the Environment Agency providing a nice month placement for an undergraduate on a sandwich degree course at Manchester Metropolitan University. 2008/09 is the first year that this placement has been run with the development control team.

Name of person responsible for scheme

Mark Rees, development control team leader.

Steps to implementation

• Initial discussions were held between tutors at Manchester Metropolitan University and Mark Rees, who is a development control team leader at the Environment Agency, regarding the possibility of a sandwich student placement.
• Mark drafted a business case for a sandwich student placement for the approval of the Environment Agency’s north west regional management team. This business case was subsequently approved along with a salary for the successful candidate.
• The university recommended suitable candidates for interview for the placement. Mark interviewed the candidates and appointed Heather Carter who had just completed the second year of her degree in physical geography.
• Heather joined the development control team at Birchwood in Warrington in September 2009 on a nine month placement. Mark drafted job objectives for Heather in line with the objectives set out in the university’s sandwich year handbook. The job objectives provide direction for her learning during the placement. Mark and Heather meet at regular intervals to discuss and review her progress against these objectives.

Benefits

• The student ultimately undertakes work for the benefit of the Environment Agency and in particular the day to day work of the development control team in managing flood risk on proposed developments.
• The student placement gives the Environment Agency an opportunity to raise our profile to enable Manchester Metropolitan University and its students to better understand what we do.
• The Environment Agency are in competition with other prospective employers to attract the best graduates, so this student placement gives us an opportunity to be proactive and hopefully create prospective future employees.

Results

This is the first year of running placement with the development control team, but it has been successful so far.

Lessons learnt

• Undertake candidate screening and interviewing as early as possible in the preceding academic year. 
• Ensure internal Environment Agency approvals are gained earlier to ensure that the student can join the team at the start of September. 

Future plans

To arrange for another student on placement with the team for 2009/10 starting in September 2009.

Key tips

• Workplace supervisor provides mentoring and supervision of the student during placement. 
• Workplace supervisor provides guidance and overview of work to be undertaken by the student. Delegate some supervision to team members and seek feedback on performance of student during placement.
• Student needs to be disciplined to keep learning log up to date in order to capture key learning points and avoid falling behind with records.
• The more relevant information is recorded, the more the log will be of use to the student in the future. It can form the basis of future record of continuing professional development if the student wishes to achieve professional qualifications in their career.