Overview
Consultancy Duration
The length of consultancy offered depends upon the specific requirements of the company. Short projects take place over a five week period and traditionally commence in October, although Consultants may be available to conduct short pieces of work at other times throughout the year. During short projects, consultants will normally visit or work from the company premises on at least five occasions. Long projects typically commence around Easter-time and run throughout the summer. For these projects, consultants generally spend a far higher proportion of time working on site with the company.
Project Criteria
Participating businesses are asked to work with the Enterprise and Business Partnerships team to develop a one page project brief, detailing the work that the company would like to have done. The range of topics that can be covered through the projects is extensive, providing that the issue(s) to be investigated is environmentally focussed and achievable in the timeframes of either a short or long project.
Cost
Lancaster Environment Centre has been successful in accessing European Funding to support the development of consultancy projects in companies and can therefore provide consultants free of charge to SME companies based within the North West ERDF Objective 2 Fully eligible areas.
Company Requirements
Although companies are not charged for accessing the support of a Graduate Consultant, LEC asks that businesses reimburse consultants for any out of pocket expenses incurred whilst travelling to and from or on behalf of a company, and for the cost of purchasing resources required specifically for the benefit of the company through the project.
Companies must also be able to confirm that adequate health, safety and insurance provision is in place to cover the consultant whilst undertaking work away from the University premises.
Quality Control
In order to ensure that Graduate Consultants are of a high quality and of a business mindset, the Enterprise and Business Partnerships team interviews each candidate and provides a half day induction session prior to the allocation of any projects. Projects are allocated to consultants based upon their suitability, experience, area of expertise and personal preferences.
Benefits
Through the provision of a dedicated Graduate Consultant, businesses gain access to the wider resources and research capabilities of the Lancaster Environment Centre (right), and the university departments. Consultants provide a free physical resource, an environmental aptitude and a willingness to tackle the environmental issues that would otherwise be impossible for most SMEs to do so. In return the participating consultants gain the valuable vocational experience demanded by modern employers and in several instances have been taken on directly by host companies.
Contacts
David Ainsworth
Tel: +44 (0)1524 510 586
d.ainsworth@lancaster.ac.uk
Case Study:
Future Amtec
Future Amtec, based in Preston, provides underground asset investigation services utilising CCTV and Sonar technologies to customers nationwide, including several of the major utilities companies. The company had 2 projects conducted for them, both completed by Environmental Science graduate Kiran Woolhead.
For the initial 5-week project, a baseline environmental assessment of the company with specific regard to its compliance with environmental legislation, and its overall environmental impact, was undertaken. The report concluded that the company has a small environmental impact overall, but that certain measures could be taken to reduce this impact nevertheless. The report also suggested that environmental awareness should be promoted at all levels within the company.
The 3-month dissertation project built upon the first project by devising an Environmental Management System in line with BS EN ISO 14001, and an Environmental Operational Procedure Manual for the company.
