Environmental Practitioner degree apprenticeships: who, what and where?

Background

Especially for the last day of Green Careers Week #GCW2023, here’s a summary of who has offered Environmental Practitioner degree apprenticeships from 1st January 2020 right up to today.

The data covers every degree apprenticeship vacancy I’ve recorded during this period, with my main criterion being that they need to be appropriate for an 18/19-year-old Level 3 school or college-leaver to apply for during their final year in full-time education or within a year of leaving.

In England I’ve checked these on a regular basis throughout this period, so the lists should be fairly comprehensive. I’ve also been checking them in Scotland (Graduate Apprenticeships), Wales and Northern Ireland since 1^st June 2022. However, I haven’t come across any relevant vacancies advertised in any of the devolved nations so far and therefore at present my data is confined to England only.

The general picture here is that the employers who offer Environmental Practitioner degree apprenticeships are mainly:

The Environment Agency
Design and engineering consultancy firms who specialise in large-scale construction and infrastructure projects, including most of the big names in this sector
Local authorities offering degree apprenticeships for Environmental Health Officers
Water utility companies, universities and a few other miscellaneous companies

Total number recorded from 1/1/2020 to 10/11/2023

250, of which 41 were specifically for Environmental Health Officers

Employers offering these apprenticeships

I’ve broken these down into two lists, the first list covering the 205 general Environmental Practitioner vacancies and the second covering the 41 Environmental Health Officer vacancies. Both lists start with the employer offering the highest number and then work downwards:

List 1: Environmental Practitioners (general)

40-50 vacancies:

The Environment Agency

5-25 vacancies:

Tetra Tech
JBA Consulting
Mott MacDonald
Balfour Beatty
Ove Arup & Partners
Systra
WSP
Arcadis
Atkins
Waterman Group
Severn Thames Water
Thames Water Utilities

1-4 vacancies:

4-Rail Services
Mace
Skanska
Vinci (Taylor Woodrow and Eurovia)
Aecom
Airbus
Capgemini
Hydrock Consultants
Sir Robert McAlpine
Transport for London
Volker Rail
Wiser Group
Buro Happold Consulting Engineers
Jacobs
Jeremy Bean Associates
Kellogg Brown & Root
Premier Foods
Ramboll
Ridge & Partners
Savills
University of Birmingham
Veolia
Wates Construction
Willmott Dixon

List 2: Environmental Health Officers

1-4 vacancies:

London Borough of Haringey
London Borough of Brent
North Somerset Council
Sheffield City Council
Bath & North East Somerset Council
Epsom & Ewell Borough Council
London Borough of Walthamstow
North Devon Council
North Lincolnshire Council
South Norfolk District Council
Borough Council of Kings Lynn & West Norfolk
Bristol City Council
Dorset Council
Eastleigh Borough Council
Gravesham Borough Council
London Borough of Islington
Oxford City Council
Preston City Council
Reading Borough Council
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Rossendale Borough Council
Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council
Thurrock Council
University of Bristol
Wyre Council

Number of vacancies broken down by county (loosely defined)

58 Greater London

24 Bristol & Gloucestershire

20 West Midlands

14 Kent

14 Yorkshire

11 Greater Manchester

10 Cambridgeshire

9 Sussex

8 Hertfordshire

8 Surrey

7 Berkshire

7 Somerset

6 Essex

5 Cheshire

5 Hampshire

5 Leicestershire

4 Lancashire

4 Lincolnshire

3 Bedfordshire

3 Derbyshire

3 Devon

3 Norfolk

3 Oxfordshire

3 Tyne & Wear

3 Warwickshire

2 Cornwall

2 Dorset

1 Cumbria

1 Durham

1 Nottinghamshire

1 Shropshire

1 Staffordshire

1 Suffolk

University partners

Whenever possible I’ve also kept a record of the partner university or college and my latest data is:

67 Kingston University

55 Coventry University

20 University of Bolton

20 University of the West of England

15 Keele University

15 Middlesex University

11 University Centre Weston

9 University of Brighton

7 Leeds Beckett University

2 Anglia Ruskin University

2 University of Central Lancashire

2 University of Wolverhampton

2 Westminster College

1 Burnley College

1 University of Chichester

Starting salaries

Minimum salaries are sometimes quoted as being on a scale that starts at somewhere between £9,000 and £10,000pa, but with the actual figure unspecified and likely to be significantly higher than that.

When precise starting salaries have been specified, the most frequently quoted have been as follows:

Most common starting salary: £19,000+
Followed by £17,000+, £18,000+, £20,000+ and £21,000+
Then £16,000+ and £22,000+
And a small number have started on £12,000+, £14,000+, £15,000+, £23,000+ and £25,000+

My featured image is a photo I took at Dungeness in Kent, one of my favourite places.

An updated edition of this article was subsequently published in February 2024 with all the latest data:

https://alanbullockcareers.com/2024/02/25/environmental-practitioner-degree-apprenticeships-2024-update-who-what-and-where/