Giving everyone access to opportunities within the environmental sector

Delta-Simons, part of the Lucion Group, are pleased to give their continued support as the Careers Partner for Black Geographers,  a Community Interest Company, for a second year in succession, to enable greater representation  of Black people within geography and the Environmental Sector.

In 2021, we partnered with the Institute of Environmental Sciences to join their commitment to lead system change within the Environmental Sector to address diversity gaps that exist within our sector. A report published by the IES in 2021 stated that the environmental profession was identified as being the second least ethnically diverse sector in the UK (with just 3.1% of environmental professionals identifying as non-white ethnicities versus 19.9% average across all other occupations).

Delta-Simons recognised that it is no longer enough to look at your company policies and say ‘You’re an inclusive employer and celebrate all diversities’ without taking any actions forward.  We have acted by connecting and collaborating with external stakeholders such as IES & Black Geographers. We are helping to break down barriers by giving access to career opportunities within Delta-Simons & Lucion Group. Through knowledge sharing, careers workshops and offering summer work placements and feedback on job applications we are encouraging diversification.

Our responsibility as the Careers Partner for Black Geographers is to promote equity, diversity and inclusion internally and across the Environmental Sector. We demonstrated this in 2021 by hosting a series of workshops that included panel discussions to share what we do as a business, what the role of an environmental consultant is, and the variety of disciplines within our different environmental divisions. This was followed by free skills workshops about CVs, covering letters, interviews and using LinkedIn. This supported Black Geographers members to apply for placements and prepare them for job applications.

Francisca Rockey, Founder of Black Geographers says “January 2022 marks year 2 of our career partnership with Delta Simons. Katie Bachelor, ESG consultant, reached out to us in early 2021 about the potential to collaborate and tackle the lack of diversity in the environment sector.

Through focus groups with our community, we have identified barriers that prevent or deter people from entering the sector, we identified that education, awareness and accessibility are reoccurring barriers. Using our knowledge of the barriers facing diverse communities in accessing the environment space and collaborating with DeltaSimons, we are creating space for us and supporting the next generation of environmental professionals.

Thus far, we have had 145 attendees to the events, after the 4th workshop, we had planned to offer work experience placements at DeltaSimons. Attendees were encouraged to use the skills gained from previous workshops to create a CV and Cover Letter to apply for the role, due to the COVID situation at the time, we were unable to carry out the work experience placements but this year, Delta Simons are offering 2 virtual work experience placements for 2 weeks in June. “

A few of our attendees from our 2021 workshops are now working within the environment sector; William Porley is a Geo Environmental Graduate at Delta-Simons Environmental Consultants, Patricia Izebhor is a Sustainability and Wellbeing Consultant at Element Four, and Ashleigh Mubaiwa is a Environment and Sustainability Advisor at Telent Technology Services LTD. Other attendees are in the process of completing their studies, have or are considering applying for roles within the Environment Sector and still have access to the recorded workshops for guidance during the job hunting process.

I am delighted to be working with Delta-Simons again, it has been a pleasure to work with them, their workshops and support have been invaluable to our community.  

We asked our attendees what they find most useful and enjoyable about our career’s events and here are their responses:

‘Getting in-depth knowledge. Tapping into resources I’d never seen or have the chance to know about’ – Panel event attendee. 

‘Getting feedback on my cv and tips from an actual HR person/people working in my desired field was really important. Don’t think I’ve ever seen events like that before’. - Cover Letter event attendee.

Our aim for 2022 and beyond is to maintain the momentum by building greater opportunities for any individual irrespective of their background and circumstances by offering support and involvement through taking proactive steps to improve the national average statistics and reduce the recognised gap.

Black Geographers in association with Career's Partner Delta-Simons 2022 Career workshops dates:

• Thursday 27th January – 18:00-19:30 - Introduction to the Environmental Sector (a roundtable discussion presenting different aspects of the business and types of careers that exist with Delta-Simons and Lucion Group).
• Thursday 24th February – 18:00-19:00 - CVs (a presentation and roundtable discussion on what Delta-Simons looks for in a CV and general top tips).
• Thursday 24th March – 18:00-19:00 - Cover Letters (a presentation and roundtable discussion on what Delta-Simons would look for in cover letters and general top tips).
• Thursday 28th April – 18:00-19:00 - Interviews and LinkedIn (a presentation and roundtable discussion on key interview skills and how to build a successful LinkedIn network).

If you are interested in getting involved in this programme or require more information please send an email to info@blackgeographers.com