So you think you know what Environmental Health is all about?
Prepare to be surprised…
Environmental Health. For many people, these two words conjure up an unappealing range of activities including catching rats, unblocking drains, even clearing up dog's mess in the park. Stop right there, put aside your preconceptions: this is a graduate career with a range of excellent job opportunities.
First, a reality check. Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) are highly qualified professionals who don't actually carry out any of the tasks listed above. They do work which, as well as being varied and challenging, makes a real difference to people's everyday lives. Doctors and nurses treat illnesses when they occur; EHOs carry out preventative and protective work to stop people getting ill in the first place. Their role may not be as visible, but it's just as important to our national wellbeing.
EHOs work to ensure that the food we eat is safe and of good quality, to improve housing conditions, to safeguard standards of workplace health and safety, and to create a better environment. The training covers all these aspects, and once qualified you can either work as a generalist or specialise in the area that interests you most.
It's a career that provides excellent opportunities, both for school leavers and for adults wanting to retrain or to take forward experience gained in related occupations. A degree in environmental health opens the door to a wide range of job prospects.
Most EHOs work in the public sector, usually for local authorities, where demand for qualified practitioners now exceeds supply. Your work could involve monitoring the hygiene of food premises, ensuring that multi-occupancy housing meets a proper standard, preparing evidence for a court case about a workplace accident, dealing with noise nuisance from a disco, or tackling air pollution problems. Rats and drains might come into it too, but not as a hands-on responsibility - you wouldn't be expected to set the traps or wade through the sewage yourself.
Nowadays, an increasing number of EHOs are employed by the private sector, in consultancies or by organisations including food retailers, holiday firms, shipping companies and airlines. How about a job with British Airways, or Harrods, or Sainsburys, or aboard a P&O liner?
For the adventurous at heart, there is also the possibility of working abroad. British-trained EHOs are taking their skills to less developed countries including Tanzania and Peru, where they are making a real contribution to the sustainable development of some of the world's poorest communities.
Environmental health is a job where no two days are the same, where you don't spend your whole time chained to an office desk, where you are dealing with all kinds of people and where you have the satisfaction of doing work that matters.
To become a fully qualified EHO, you have to pass an accredited degree course, undertake practical training and successfully complete a practical training logbook assessment and professional examinations. Accredited courses are currently offered by 11 universities and include undergraduate and postgraduate courses on a full-time or part-time basis.
The entry requirements for an undergraduate degree in Environmental Health are 160 points with science, at AS and A2 level, or 200 points without science. Part-time routes for more mature students often have more flexible entry requirements. For example, a BTEC may be an appropriate entry qualification. People with science degrees often go straight onto a postgraduate course and qualify that way.
Forget 'rat-catcher' stereotypes: if you want a worthwhile and flexible career with plenty of scope for development, environmental health is well worth considering.
For more information on careers in environmental health, visit www.ehocareers.org
GETTING QUALIFIED
Course Content
On an environmental health degree course you will study science, technology, statistics, social science and public administration at a general level. Food, occupational health, pollution and housing issues are covered in more depth. Laboratory work, case studies, visits, group work and tutorials make the academic studies varied and interesting.
Practical Training
As well as obtaining a degree, you need to complete 48 weeks of practical training, at least 50% of which has to be done with a local authority. A sandwich course (four years for undergraduates, two years for postgraduates) combining academic study with practical training is the ideal route, but it is possible to do your training after you graduate. At the end of your training, you will submit a practical training logbook for assessment.
Professional Exams
Once you've graduated and done your training, the final stage is the professional exams. On passing these, you will be awarded a Certificate of Registration by the Chartered Institute
of Environmental Health.
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