The success of an ecology internship programme

Ecology consultancy Arbtech has created internships and new roles for budding professionals in a bid to tackle the skills gap.

In 2024, biodiversity net gain (BNG) became mandatory, adding a huge amount of pressure to workloads of authorities. According to the experts, the ecology industry has faced a major skills gap for a number of years, but the pressures of BNG targets and the huge amount of ecological work for professionals has contributed to a further strain.

Arbtech is a team of more than 120 arboriculturists and ecologists who provide tree, bat, newt, topographical and biodiversity surveys. It is helping to bridge the growing skills gap and ecologist shortage in the UK. Each year, it runs an internship programme to give promising ecologists with little to no experience a chance to conduct real ecology work with a team of experts. The programme sets the budding ecologists up with valuable skills and experience, with some being offered full-time roles at the end of the six-month internship.

In 2024, however, in an attempt to meet the rising demand, the Arbtech team took on 50 ecology interns and created full-time ecologist roles for 25 of them. They are now working with experts across England and Wales and “learning essential skills to help them to thrive in the industry”.

Robert Oates, Arbtech’s Founder and CEO, said: “From a recruitment perspective, we have really recognised a shortage of experienced ecologists in recent years. However, there is no lack of budding young ecologists looking to get into roles.

“Providing proper training and a supportive working environment can make all the difference in creating talented and fully trained young ecologists. Investing in young ecologists is essential to ensure the industry is sufficiently robust to meet BNG demands.”

Workforce retention

Oates points out that part of the issue lies with the fact that the skillset has not been recognised in previous years – young ecologists have been exploited with low pay and long hours. He believes that if ecologists are fairly compensated for their work, it will encourage more to consider this as a career and will help keep skilled professionals in roles for longer. 

He says: “At Arbtech, we are helping to tackle industry-wide problems through our internship. By providing budding ecologists with essential training for BNG, paying them fairly and providing them with good working conditions, we can encourage long-term careers.”

For more, visit arbtech.co.uk