Environment Officer
Environment Agency
Manna W
0.00.00 My name’s Manna W and I work for the Environment Agency and I’m there as an Environment Officer. There’s a lot of businesses that maybe produce waste so we have to go and inspect them and make sure that they’re managing their site properly. We’re first emergency responders so we work very closely with the fire service and the police in these type of matters.
0.00.30 And if there’s any chemical fires or major disasters basically, that’s when we get called out. I enjoyed art and I enjoyed science and basically I wanted to do art but my family’s quite focused on money. So they didn’t want me to go down the art route and so I chose biology because it was something that I enjoyed.
0.01.00 My father, because he didn’t have the opportunity to get into university or to have secondary education, he always said oh, all my children are going to go to university, so we were all forced to go to university. I was actually ill for a year and I was in hospital for a year. Well I had leukaemia, that was when I was 17.
0.01.30 Leukaemia changed me and it made me a much stronger person and it really focused what I wanted to do for the next ten years. So I had a ten year plan and I wanted to go to university. I wanted to travel. I wanted to do all these things and I had a big list of all the things I wanted to do. I’ve done most of them. I done the last one last year which was to go snowboarding and I’m quite proud of all the things I’ve done.
0.02.00 They said that it might come back so you have to go and live, live and do whatever you’ve wanted to do. I did a lot of voluntary work abroad and I sort of volunteered myself on expeditions, so I turtle tagged, I caught golden tree frogs, I caught bats abroad in Trinidad and Cyprus and it’s really exotic and exciting. But I ended up doing environmental health.
0.02.30 Mainly because I wasn’t sure yet what I wanted to sort of settle down in. I wasn’t sure of my career path but I wanted to keep it broad and I’ll be able to, you know, decide later in life. My problem is that I never stick to one thing. So I art. I do a lot of sports. I like diving. I used to do a bit of sports climbing. I sail. I windsurf.
0.03.00 I do everything but only in small capacities. In five years I would like to be a bit high up in my profession. In the Environment Agency there’s a lot of opportunities for you to move around. It’s the first Agency I’ve worked, well it’s the first organisation I’ve worked for that I find that this is possible.
0.03.30 I think my parents are secretly proud although they’re a bit disappointed that I don’t make lots of money. But I think they’re proud in the fact that I’ve been abroad and that I venture into these type of things. That I haven’t really been influenced by friends to make lots of money. 0.03.50
Manna W is an Environmental Officer for the Environment Agency. She was diagnised with Leukaemia at 17 so she wanted to make sure she had a full life. She says, “I had a ten year plan and I wanted to go to university. I wanted to travel… I had a big list of all the things I wanted to do. I’ve done most of them.”
More information about Environment professionals
The UK average salary is £29,813
There are 37.5 hours in the average working week
The UK workforce is 47% female and 53% male
Future employment
- Identifies contamination of land, air or water and assesses any adverse impact on the environment;
- Advises on and provides solutions for mitigating the effects of such contamination;
- Implements remediation works;
- Carries out environment-related desk-based research and fieldwork to collect, analyse and interpret data to determine their validity, quality and significance;
- Carries out environmental audits and environmental impact assessments;
- Communicates scientific and technical information to relevant audiences in an appropriate form, via reports, workshops, educational events, public hearings;
- Assists organisations to conduct their activities in an environmentally appropriate manner;
- Implements, reviews and advises on regulatory and legislative standards, guidelines and policies;
- Provides professional guidance to clients, government agencies, regulators and other relevant bodies, having regard for sustainable approaches and solutions.
