Work Experience

Accessing support

The Careers office offer drop-in sessions most week days for students who are seeking help in finding careers information resources and getting started with thinking about careers:

The Student Internship Bureau

The Student Internship Bureau (SIB), which is part of Careers (Student Internship Bureau), advertises paid internships of between 4 and 12 weeks with local organisations. 

The majority of these are in the summer vacation, but some can be completed on a part-time basis during semester-time.

Below are examples of organisations that may offer work experience/project placements in the environmental sector:

• The National Trust– offers internships and skills training opportunities, in addition to volunteering
• Change Agents UK - paid work placements for graduates (1-24 months)
• The Environmental Law Foundation
• Civil Service departments offer internships as part of their Summer Diversity Programme. If you do not meet the criteria for this, you can apply to departments speculatively – the Civil Service website has lists of government departments and agencies, some of which have an environmental focus including DEFRA, CEFAS, FERA and Transport.
• Homes & Communities Agency
• STEP programme– internships for undergraduates (Step Classic) and graduates (Step Graduate) with a small or medium sized company. Some placements have an environmental focus 

Placement Reports

Many of our students undertake internships in the environmental sector during their studies either during the holidays or part-time throughout the year. 

Read more about the types of work experience our students have acquired.

Recent placements:

National Bee Unit at FERA

I chose to apply for this placement as I wished to gain some experience of what it is like to work in a commercial laboratory; in a scientific governmental institution, working to their institutional standards and practices (e.g. Data recording, sample labelling, institutional hierarchy structure (important for requisitioning funds for experimental supplies and for general support)).

My placement took place at the National Bee Unit (NBU) within the Food, Environment, and Research Agency (FERA). For the duration of the internship I worked primarily as a lab assistant for a PHD student Benjamin Jones. The PHD focused on effect of immune activation on feeding behaviour of honey bees. During the internship I also had an opportunity to work within the many other departments at FERA including the molecular biology laboratories, where I was aliquoting samples of bacteria for DNA extraction for sequence typing, ecotoxicology experiments with bees and bumblebees, as well as artificial mite culture experiments and haemolymph extractions. I also performed an independent experiment devised by myself which investigated karimonal effects of bee pupa and I was fortunate enough to gain apiculture experience.

During the internship what I particularly enjoyed was working as a part of a team in a real laboratory performing current and meaningful research. I especially enjoyed working in a very dynamic and friendly environment and the opportunity to work on other research projects unrelated to my internship as well as meeting the scientists that work on those projects.

My advice would be to commit fully to the internship, work hard, and seize all of the opportunities that it offers.

Leva Lelenaite, 3rd Year BSc Environmental Science 2014/15

Sustainability Awareness Project Assistant

In summer 2014 I undertook an 8-week internship with the Energy and Environment Team in Estates Services at the University, working on sustainability awareness. I chose this placement as I thought it would be great experience allowing me to apply the knowledge about sustainability that I’ve learnt from my degree to a real-life situation, helping others to understand and learn about why environmental sustainability is important.

During my internship, I acted as an advisor to current Green Impact staff teams and contacted potential new teams to encourage uptake of this voluntary scheme that rewards staff for completing ‘green’ actions in the workplace. I learnt about how a business or organisation is run regarding environmental issues and general management, and developed an understanding of the University’s Sustainability Strategy & Carbon Management Plan, including their plan to use the ISO14001 environmental management system to understand and reduce their impacts on the environment – really useful to my Business and the Environment module in my 4^th year.

I also undertook training in CMS web design in order to update the University’s sustainability web pages and create a new student sustainability website, which I used as the basis for a corresponding student handbook called “Sustainable York”, containing all information on sustainability at the University and in the city – the feedback that Estates Services have had from my handbook has been great, and it’s so rewarding to know that something I developed on my own has had such a positive impact on the University!

Elisa Caton, 4th Year MEnv Environmental Science (Global Change) 2014/15

Stockholm Environment Institute at York

After finishing my degree I began a second research internship with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in York. I choose SEI for their distinguished reputation in bridging science and policy on sustainable development. Whilst working within SEI’s Sustainable Consumption, Production and Trade group alongside Dr Chris West I assisted on two projects: the NETpositive Initiative and Measure What Matters.

Within the NETpositive Initiative I was tasked with analysing data collected from an Impact Appraisal and Action Planning Tool used by the Scottish construction industry I had previously helped design and launch in my first internship at SEI. Data extracted from the tool highlighted material issues across the industry and potential barriers to sustainable behaviour change.

My work within the Measure What Matters project involved examining the alignment of green economy indicators between corporate, national and international monitoring and reporting frameworks. This research is intended to inform the creation of a set of common design principles to guide the effective implementation of the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals across business, national governments and international policy communities.

Working at SEI has put me on a steep trajectory of rapid career progression and the soft skills I gained from working within a fast-paced research environment have proved crucial towards helping me secure a recent position as Project Coordinator on a research project at the University of York. I would definitely recommend undertaking an internship during your time at university, it will not only bolster your employability but also give you a chance to meet inspiring professionals within your field of study.

Oliver Taherzadeh, 2014 graduate Environmental Economics and Environmental Management

Click on the links below to read about previous placements:

• Beth Taylor Marine Environmental Management Summer Placement 2013 (PDF , 268kb)
• Frances Ryan BSc Environmental Science and now working towards a MSc in Corporat (PDF , 224kb)
• Holly Wetherall Marine Environmental Management Summer Placement 2013 (PDF , 292kb)
• Oliver Taherzadeh BSc Environmental Economics and Environmental Management (PDF , 442kb)
• Philippa Rickard BSc Environmental Science (PDF , 384kb)
• Preeyus Patel BSc Environmental Science (PDF , 205kb)
• Rachel Sopher BSc Environmental Economics and Environmental Management (EEEM) (PDF , 204kb)