It was a great first day at our 13th Annual Enhancing Fieldwork Learning Showcase event hosted at the University of Birmingham. Mark Nason, our first keynote, from CIEEM shared this great new resource for those looking for employment in the green sector https://lnkd.in/eghjjXWn.
We had talks from Lorraine Scott, Simon Docherty and Natasha McGowan at Queen’s University Belfast who talked about the importance of choice in the type of fieldwork undertaken, field based work placements and fieldwork as a mechanism for student development.
Phill Williams was our second keynote and talked about graduate and vocational pathways to employment and highlighted the strong attributes within the groups and those that employers identify as needing enhancement. Phill raised the question, how do we embed skills into fieldwork that are relevant to students who don’t/won’t go into ‘green careers’?
The session concluded with Alice Mauchline from the University of Reading introducing our fieldwork audit tool which we will update as a result of our discussions today. Current version can be found on our website: https://lnkd.in/eBeDwtkX
After lunch we headed to Woodgate Valley where Trevor Collins (Open University), Julia Cooke (Open University) and Lesley Batty (University of Birmingham) led a hybrid fieldtrip. You can visit the field sites virtually on this ThingLink tour: https://lnkd.in/eYwcfSeT
The purpose was to show how fieldwork can be more accessible to students (or in this case, participants) who cannot join physical fieldwork through the use of simple technologies and microphones to support live streaming. Participants in the field were acting on the instruction of those online and those online were interacting through chat/Teams via the live stream. Dissolved oxygen and air temperature measurements were taken. Kick sampling was undertaken, macro invertebrates were ID’d and an anenometer that had been mistaken for a flow meter was saved from submersion just in the nick of time! Our conference dinner in the evening was very enjoyable and kindly sponsored by ESRI.
Day 2 of our hybrid Enhancing Fieldwork Learning event started with a thought-provoking keynote from Karen Devine from the British Ecological Society who spoke about Career and Skills development for marginalised communities and outlined how they assumed they would fund skills development but actually need to fund practical access to the field for marginalised communities. This might look like childcare, bus fares to unpaid placements or basic field kit such as walking boots.
Janine Maddison from Newcastle University talked to us about their fantastic students as partners project #NCLlive, about the benefits of live streaming from the field. She spoke about future prospects of live stream to improve accessibility, address sustainability challenges and enhance the student experience.
Brian Whalley outlined a range of case studies which highlighted how fieldwork can be used a simulation for employment situations.
Dave Morgan from ESRI outlined the brilliant work undertaken by ESRI to highlight how graduates can get into GIS careers. Find out more at his Storymap https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/526126c46db246faa8ac00f3f7e587cf and brilliant Careers in GIS online resource for students and graduates: https://careerswithgis.co.uk/
After a brief coffee break we heard from an employer panel outlining what skills employers are looking for in graduates, where they feel there is a skills gap. The panel included Jackie Evans (ADAS), Beck Collins (Sustainability West Midlands), Andy Shaw (Environment Agency), Tom Docker (Middlemarch Environmental) and Susan Hartland Smith (Warwickshire Wildlife Trust).
In summary, the employers suggest they are looking for a holistic understanding of the job rather than very niche skills. Top skills outlined by our employer panel are people skills, the ability to bring people together, having the ability to persuade, being able to speak to the general public, good quality writing skills, time management, journey planning for fieldwork, team work, develop solutions and critical understanding of uncertainty in measurements.
Lorraine Scott from QUB joined us again for Day 2 to demonstrate her virtual field course which flipped traditional lectures into engaging virtual fieldwork and highlighted the benefits of this approach for inclusion and sustainability.
Our final keynote was from Shane Winser from the Royal Geographical Society who outlined how the cost-benefit of international fieldwork for student is important to consider alongside the carbon footprint aspect. She highlighted the RGS expedition database (https://expeditions.rgs.org/search.aspx) and world register of field centres (https://fieldcentres.rgs.org/FieldCentresMap.html) which are excellent resources for practitioners undertaking expeditions or fieldwork.
This has been another really thought provoking day of discussions with lots of ideas and practical tips to take away to enhance fieldwork learning and student employment. See you all next year for the 14th event! Details to follow on our project website: https://enhancingfieldwork.org.uk/
Blog post written by Katharine Welsh.
Enhancing Fieldwork Learning 