2024 Summer placement- Environmental Policy

Job title:

2024 Summer placement- Environmental Policy

Company

WSP

Job description

We are WSP – Join us and make your career future ready!

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In today’s world it’s important to work for a company that has clear purpose, giving back to communities and supporting what is truly important in the world.

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To find out more about our business click on the following link and discover what awaits you at WSP: Your new role, what’s involved?

We have an exciting opportunity for a post-grad student or alumni (at MSc level) to join our successful and growing environmental policy and economics team for the spring/summer of 2024. As part of our team, you will have the opportunity to work across a variety of topic areas including: chemicals, water, air quality, industrial emissions, natural capital and circular economy, soil health, waste and waste management amongst others. The WSP policy and economics team works at the forefront of emerging environmental policy, giving you the chance to be directly involved in helping build and shape the evidence base that underpins policy making. This includes the following activities:

• Literature review and evidence gathering from a wide range of published and grey data sources. This could be to help provide evidence for state-of-play reports (e.g., work on understanding the issues around emerging contaminants), impact assessments on policy / regulatory amendment (e.g., revision of the industrial emissions directive), or to satisfy international reporting (e.g., development of river basin management plans).
• Economic assessments and spreadsheet-based calculations. Impact assessments are core to policy making, whether that’s new regulations, amendment of existing regulations, or evaluation for the fitness of a regulation in place (e.g., does the urban wastewater treatment directive still perform as it should, or has the world evolved beyond its original design (e.g., emerging contaminants). Gathering economic data and performing calculations for costs and benefits, and identification of any unexpected costs/issues is key to the work we do.
• Stakeholder engagement. Because we work at the forefront of emerging policy, often the data we need is not yet published. This means discussions with industry, regulators, academics, non-governmental organisations, and the public are key to helping understand the issues and provide factual based evidence to support the outcomes of studies.
• Report writing and presentations. Environmental policy is a highly technical subject spanning a wide range of topics and stakeholders with different backgrounds. Providing technical and economic information in a suitable form that it can be easily understood by all is key to work we do.

YOUR TEAM – You will work in a diverse team (scientists, economists, regulatory experts, etc), contributing to developing policy, including: impact assessments; cost-benefit analysis; socio-economic analysis model development; data collection and analysis; consultation; report writing and presentations. WSP’s environmental policy and economics team is at the forefront of providing policy, technical and economic advice on the development and implementation of environmental policy and business response to policy. We work for customers such as the UK Government, European Commission, international organisations (e.g. the United Nations, the World Bank), industry associations and companies. Our reputation for robust and impartial analysis means our projects directly influence the development and improvement of environmental policies in the UK, EU and beyond, addressing some of the most challenging issues we face. We’d love to hear from you if you have:

• A demonstrable interest in developing a career in environmental policy.
• Demonstrable research skills / experience. This may be via collection and analysis of data, summarising and critically evaluating literature, stakeholder interviewing, for example.
• Strong mathematical skills, covering quantitative analysis, data manipulation, statistical modelling.
• Understanding of analytical techniques such as: survey design and execution; market analysis; socio-economic analysis; regulatory impact assessment. Familiarity with national and international sources of government and business statistics would be desirable.
• Some knowledge of at least one of following topics and the affected sectors: air quality, chemicals, industrial emissions, natural capital, water or waste.
• Excellent communication skills and an ability to write clear and concise reports in English.

What’s in it for you?

• Opportunity to gain paid experience working within an environmental consultancy.
• Opportunity to work with and learn from a range of key experts spanning chemicals, water, air, soil, waste, and circularity.
• The opportunity to test your problem-solving skills on real world issues that present a challenge for society and industry.
• The opportunity to contribute to work that makes a real difference to the protection of the environment and betterment of society.
• Support and further development of your skillset through on-the-job training and mentoring.

Apply now and be the future of WSP!

How long does the process take?

You’ll receive an email acknowledging receipt of your application within 48 hours of submission. After reviewing your application, if we feel your background and skills are suitable, you will be sent through to the second stage in the process which is an online behavioural assessment. To learn more about the assessment please visit

If you are successful after completing the assessment, we will work hard to match as many applicants to placement opportunities as possible. However, each year we receive far more applications than there are places available, and therefore you will be only contacted if your preferences, background and skills match our available placements.

Most applications complete initial assessments and are progressed to the next stage which is an interview, within 8 weeks but it’s good to know that the whole process can last up to 12 weeks in total. We will aim to keep you informed throughout the time that your application is being considered however, due to the volume of applications received, we are not able to respond to individual requests for status updates.

• Inclusivity & Diversity?

We want our people to achieve rewarding careers, bringing their whole selves to work. We celebrate integrity and treat people with respect, supporting each other and embracing diversity to create a culture of inclusion and belonging at WSP.

• Health & Wellbeing?

We are committed to supporting our people, giving you the tools to make improvements to your health and wellbeing through our Thrive programme.

We have an Employee Assist Programme, Med24, which gives you and your family unrestricted telephone access to an NHS doctor where you can call day or night or have a face-to-face video consultation.

• Flex your time?

For improved work life balance, WSP offers the “WSP Hour” which enables you to take one hour per day to do as you wish and make up the time earlier or later that day. You also have the option to flex your bank holiday entitlement to suit you.

Apply now and be the future of WSP!

#WeAreWSP

Please note WSP reserves the right to close the vacancy before the advertised closing date

Expected salary

Location

United Kingdom

Job date

Sun, 21 Jan 2024 05:21:15 GMT

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