The Bachelor of Environmental Practice is a three-year undergraduate degree
that we offer to Cairns and Townsville students. In The Bachelor of Environmental
Practice we offer three majors right now. The Land and Water Management major, the
Biodiversity Assessment and Management major and the Corporate Environmental
Management major and so these focus on different aspects of the environment but
there are core subjects that students all take that are quite fundamental
around sustainability, around policy-making around impact assessment
and around the basics. James Cook University is ranked above world-class
in environmental science and management and the best science minds are at James
Cook University in this field. In The Bachelor of Environmental program
students are really exposed to the real environmental issues of our times.
We have guest lecturers coming in who are working in the industry right now who
are telling the students not only what they do but some of the key challenges
that they're facing around managing human impacts on the reef, on rainforests,
our ecosystems and our local community. All of those things – the key issues in
the industry. One of the things that students love about this degree is that
it is so hands-on. We take full advantage of the wonderful environment
we live in. Here in Cairns and in Townsville we have a
wonderful tropical environment. We have a community gardens on both campuses.
The students learn about community gardens, about the different vegetation and
organising a not-for-profit organisation or club like that with the involvement
of our in-house sustainability group called TropEco. TropEco is really James
Cook University's way of not just talking the talk but walking the talk as
well, so our students for instance visit our cooling towers, which provide an
energy-efficient airconditioning system for our campuses. They also have a play
with the energy management system, which is fully automated
so they've got raw data to work with and to monitor and manipulate. They often get
involved in the waste management and the waste audit aspect of the campus as well.
So basically we involve the students in the day-to-day operation, the
sustainability operations of our university, which is quite unique.
The Bachelor of Environmental Practice program really takes advantage of our
wonderful environment and all that it has to offer. So that's why we're very
strong on field trips, we're very strong on hands-on experiences. This is
something you can't get in the city or in an urban setting, so we recognise that
that is our strength. In their final year our students do undertake a work-
integrated learning program and this provides students an opportunity to go
and try out what that workplace is going to look like, also make a really good
impression to use as a reference in their future job
applications and that has been a really important aspect of our program here.
There are a number of different jobs that environmental graduates are
qualified to do after finishing this program. One of the issues is that
students will have a range of options and which one to choose. So for instance
we have graduates who work in ports, airports, in a number of tourism
operators. We have students who work in government, all levels of government.
Local state and federal government is a key employer of fresh graduates. A lot of
our graduates work in the mines, they also work in environmental consultancies
where they're exposed to a number of different industries. Those are probably
the most common. It's reassuring for students to know that James Cook
University has an excellent track record in employability and employability
success, so what that means for the students is that they can come to JCU
and be confident that they're getting the grounding, the necessary knowledge in
science and management of the environment that they need in order to
get a job straight after uni, so without needing further qualification. Having a
career in environment is not just about filling in your nine-to-five with
something mundane, it's a real calling. You know, it is a real passion and it's a
career choice. If you're passionate about the environment
then James Cook University's Bachelor of environmental Practice degree is really
for you.