Career Accelerator for Aspiring Ecological Consultants

An eight week online modular course, commencing 17/10/22, that will enable students to take significant steps to achieve a permanent position as an ecological consultant in the UK.

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Testimonials

Comments from our current career accelerators (cohort #5)

Week 1 review

Craig Basford

First week was definitely at the right pace and easy to follow, personally I would not change anything there.

Week 2 review

Lynden Reed

This was a surprising useful week. Lots of useful information some of which I applied in work this week. Having a list of all EPS and domestically protected species was useful. It was also really useful having the changes following Brexit explained clearly. There was so much information I certainly haven't retained all of it so going forward I am going to go through my notes from week 2 and try to cement in as much of the info as I can.

Week 3 review

Alison Harrell

I didn't know much about bat roosting sites so this information has been really useful. I will be more observant of buildings/trees I pass regularly to get my mind in the habit of assessing their suitability.

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Reviews of our accelerator courses

Cohorts 1 - 4

This course will put you on the right path

Guy Ostler

To cut a long story short, this course has provided me with a roadmap with which to gain a career in ecological consultancy. When I started the course, I bar...

To cut a long story short, this course has provided me with a roadmap with which to gain a career in ecological consultancy. When I started the course, I barely knew where to start as regards building skills that an employer would desire. Now, after taking the course, I feel I have a 'direction' to travel in, and have a focussed, targeted plan to put into action. An excellent course that I would hugely recommend to anybody looking to start a career in ecological consultancy.

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Excellent course

Chris Rhodes

This provided a wonderful grounding for understanding what is required to gain a role in ecological consultancy and how to do a good job once that goal is ac...

This provided a wonderful grounding for understanding what is required to gain a role in ecological consultancy and how to do a good job once that goal is achieved.

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Course curriculum

1. Welcome!
2. How to use this course
3. Before we get going...
4. Next steps
5. Course Community
6. Further Reading
1. Weekly Live Lessons
1. Toolbox - Week 1
2. The role of a consultant ecologist
3. What is it like to work for an ecological consultancy?
4. Ecology and Environmental Management Employment and Salary Survey 2022
5. Health, Safety and Wellbeing considerations
6. Consultant Ecologists Skills Wheel
7. Complete and submit your baseline skills wheel
8. Week 1 Quiz
9. Week 1 Survey
1. Toolbox - Week 2
2. Wildlife Legislation
3. Wildlife Planning and Policy
4. Week 2 Quiz
5. Week 2 Survey
1. Toolbox - Week 3
2. The importance of bat conservation in the UK
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3. Potential bat roost features in buildings
4. Potential bat roost features in trees
5. Potential bat roost features in other structures
6. Negligible and Low Bat Roost Suitability
7. Moderate Bat Roost Suitability
8. High Bat Roost Suitability and Confirmed Bat Roost
9. Week 3 Quiz
10. Week 3 Survey
1. Live Q&A recording from 07 November 2022
2. Toolbox - Week 4
3. Habitat Classification Systems
4. Introducing the Preliminary Ecological Appraisal
5. The Desk Study
6. Extended Phase 1 Habitat Survey Methodology
7. UK Habitat Classification System Methodology
8. Podcast: UK Habitat Classification System and the Digital Ecologist: interview with Paul Losse
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9. Week 4 Quiz
10. Week 4 Survey
1. Live Q&A Recording from 14 November 2022
2. Toolbox - Week 5
3. An introduction to Biodiversity Net Gain
4. Using the biodiversity metric - case study
5. An insight into BNG and delivery by Planning Authorities
6. Week 5 Quiz
7. Week 5 Survey
1. Toolbox & QGIS Community Link - Week 6
2. Live Q&A Recording from 21 November 2022
3. Installing and configuring QGIS
4. Introducing the QGIS Interface
5. Introduction to GIS file formats
6. Coordinate reference systems
7. Introducing some of the basic tools
8. Exploring attribute tables
9. Symbology
10. Test your learning - Exercise 1
11. Labels
12. Basic digitising
13. Advanced digitising
14. Test your learning - Exercise 2
15. Quality control
16. Plotting coordinate data
17. Field Calculator
18. Introduction to queries
19. Print layout
20. Test your learning - Exercise 3
21. Course consolidation
22. Test your learning - Exercise 4
23. Resources
24. Review of course and next steps
25. Week 6 Survey
1. Report template overview
2. The opening few pages of a report
3. Introduction pages
4. Legislation and planning policy pages
5. Methods or Methodology pages
6. Results pages
7. Discussion/Impact assessment pages
8. Recommendation pages
9. Conclusion, References and Appendices Pages
10. Summary pages
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11. Report writing assignment
12. Week 7 Survey
1. Recording from Expert Insights to Help Land Your First Job
2. Toolbox - Week 8
3. Get a job!
4. Creating a great CV
5. Creating a killer cover letter
6. Creating and maintaining an on-line profile
7. Submit your CV for expert feedback
8. Week 8 Survey
1. Farewell Live Session - Thursday 8 December
2. Farewell message
3. Before you go...
4. Reading List
5. Onward support

About this course

£400.00
98 lessons
10.5 hours of video content

Instructor(s)

Director Richard Dodd

I have worked as a professional ecologist since 2000 within the public, voluntary and private sectors. I'm Managing Director and Principal Consultant at Wildwood Ecology, an Award Winning 'purpose-led' Certified B Corporation company. I'm also a Chartered Ecologist and full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM).