As an expert from Rosobrnadzor, I can say that many higher education institutions have this type of training both in the form of bachelor’s and master’s programmes.
One of the urgent problems of this area of training in many universities now is the apparent simplification of the organization and conduct of student internships, which somewhat reduces the level of real training of future professionals. The peculiarity of this specialty is that it is more fundamental and opens the way, in addition to production activities, also to science and teaching.
Companies need environmental engineers who are proficient in, among other things, mathematical modelling, knowledge of environmental legislation, technology and equipment. These are usually trained as environmental engineers.
Such specialists must effectively prevent environmental violations, understand modern technologies, attract the attention of the company management in time to switch to them and prevent environmental pollution, which will protect the company itself from paying enormous fines.
Environmental engineer profession is rather in-demand and such specialists are paid handsomely. However, there are not many of them at enterprises and their demand is unlikely to increase significantly in the near future.
For example, a large enterprise may have two or three environmental specialists in its environmental department. This is due to the significant automation and informatisation of production processes.
But one of the relatively new areas for ecologists could be waste recycling and disposal. Denis Butsaev, head of the Russian environmental operator, recently talked about the need to study the situation at waste dumps to assess the possible consequences of recycling, burying, or transporting waste of various hazard classes. In my opinion, geo-ecologists would be most needed in this area.
Another promising area of specialisation for ecologists is the tourism industry. They should participate in the careful development of new tourist destinations, monitor the situation at existing destinations, propose measures to reduce the ecological burden on resort regions during the period of tourist activity and develop environmentally friendly measures outside of it.
Cover photo: AzmanL / iStock
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