Graduate Consultancy
The Lancaster Environment Centre’s Graduate Consultancy Scheme is designed to provide companies access to the skills and expertise of high calibre current university postgraduates, to undertake a range of projects including the development of new products and services, assesment of environmental impacts, improved resource use efficiency and market research analysis.
The consultancy, which is free of charge to Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in certain eligible areas, represents a true win-win situation: The projects deliver real environmental benefits to the participating companies and provide students with valuable experience before they embark upon a career in the environmental field.
During the last year the graduate consultancy scheme hand-picked over 30 graduate consultants from the University’s Environmental Sciences Master’s level degree programmes to work within North West companies on a variety of company specific environmental problems and initiatives. Students are available to work with companies for either 5 weeks or 3 months, dependent upon the requirements of the project.
The scheme has proved successful in providing the environmental expertise to enable businesses to manage their environmental agendas and develop new products and services. Furthermore, the programme is free of charge to companies with less than 250 employees, turnover of less than £50 million, and located in an ERDF-eligible area.
Industries where students have added value in previous projects include:
- Manufacturing
- Food and Drink
- Chemicals
- Renewable Energy
- Environmental Informatics
- Environmental Consultancy
- Nuclear
- Electroplating
- Engineering
- Waste Managemnet
- Contaminated Land
- Water
Contacts
David Ainsworth
Tel: +44 (0)1524 510 586
d.ainsworth@lancaster.ac.uk
Case Study:
Future Amtec
Future Amtec, based in Preston, provides underground asset investigation services utilising CCTV and Sonar technologies to customers nationwide, including several of the major utilities companies. The company had 2 projects conducted for them, both completed by Environmental Science graduate Kiran Woolhead.
For the initial 5-week project, a baseline environmental assessment of the company with specific regard to its compliance with environmental legislation, and its overall environmental impact, was undertaken. The report concluded that the company has a small environmental impact overall, but that certain measures could be taken to reduce this impact nevertheless. The report also suggested that environmental awareness should be promoted at all levels within the company.
The 3-month dissertation project built upon the first project by devising an Environmental Management System in line with BS EN ISO 14001, and an Environmental Operational Procedure Manual for the company.
