Environmental Challenges, Management & Careers

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Reflect critically on career pathways and professional responsibilities within the environmental and sustainability sector, demonstrating preparedness for employment, further study, and lifelong professional development.
• Demonstrate advanced professional and transferable skills, including teamwork, leadership, project management, critical thinking, and self-directed learning, appropriate to employment and leadership roles within the environmental and sustainability sector.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Critically evaluate the complex environmental and sustainability challenges facing society, drawing upon interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives to understand their causes, consequences, and potential solutions.
• Critically assess existing environmental management strategies, policies, and governance approaches, considering their effectiveness, limitations, ethical implications, and social impacts.

1. Contemporary environmental challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, resource depletion. 2. Systems thinking and the interconnected nature of environmental problems and their management challenges. 3. Environmental solutions: technological innovation, nature-based solutions, policy and governance approaches, and behavioural change. 4. Case studies of environmental challenges and solutions at local, national, and global scales. 5. Environmental careers and employability: professional roles, skills, competencies, and career pathways across the environmental sector. 6. Professional development, networking, and engagement with environmental practitioners. 7. Tutorial-based exploration and discussion of specialist themes, emerging environmental issues and management approaches.

This module employs a diverse range of learning and teaching methods, including whole-cohort lectures, small-group specialist tutorials, facilitated group activities, guest lectures, and a field trip. Lectures will introduce students to key environmental challenges and the range of approaches used to understand and manage them. These core concepts will be explored in greater depth through tutorial-style sessions, where students will engage with specialist themes such as biodiversity conservation, water management, environmental consultancy, and sustainability practice. Tutorials will emphasise critical discussion of contemporary environmental science, policy, and management approaches. A field trip to an environmental management site, delivered in collaboration with industry partners, will provide opportunities for students to apply theoretical concepts in a real-world context and gain insight into professional environmental practice. Guest speakers from across the environmental sector will introduce students to a range of career pathways and professional perspectives. These sessions will support students' employability and career development, while a collaborative "State of the Industry" group project will enable them to investigate current trends, challenges, and opportunities within the environmental sector.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.