Over the past decade, ECO Canada has established itself as the national, industry-initiated and led group for the resolution of the human resource issues faced by the Canadian environmental sector.
During this time, ECO has been successful in building an environmental employment strategy in partnership with environmental employers, professionals, governments and the academic community through the creation of numerous innovative products and services.
The founding documents of ECO Canada's initiatives, and indeed all sector councils, are the definition of the employment and the documented National Occupational Standards (NOS). These documents form the foundation of all project work of ECO.
Environmental Employment
Environmental employment is a cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary area that requires attention to ensure the currency and accuracy of it's definition and the national occupational standards associated with this area of expertise.
As environmental employment continues to evolve and mature, defining the scope of activities and the competencies required by practitioners and professionals alike benefits all aspects of the recruitment, retention and learning process for employers, employees and the academic community. Ensuring a strong foundation, and common logic and language, regarding environmental employment is the most critical issue for success for ECO Canada.
National Occupational Standards
The following questions will provide you with an overview and understanding of the national occupational standards for Canada's environment industry:
What are National Occupational Standards?
How are the National Occupational Standards Used?
How are the National Occupational Standards Structured?
How often are the National Occupational Standards Updated?
What are National Occupational Standards?
Occupational standards consist of the competencies required to perform work in a particular occupation. They are a set of statements describing the standard acceptable skills and knowledge requirements of professionals. National Occupational Standards are considered the benchmarks against which people of a particular occupation measure their level of performance and competency.
ECO Canada’s National Occupational Standards are compiled using a process that relies heavily on broad-based input from people working in environmental fields. Using this bottom-up approach in conjunction with the guidance of senior environmental experts, ECO Canada strives to ensure the standards are of high quality and relevance – creating an accurate depiction of current and emerging competencies in the many subsectors of environmental employment.
How are National Occupational Standards Used?
National Occupational Standards are comprised of a series of competency statements reflecting the skills and knowledge needed by professionals to work in their fields of employment. In addition to being used as a guide for hiring practices, occupational standards are used to inform employment models, to educate students about and to meet the standards of the profession, and to develop training curricula.
Most notably, the National Occupational Standards for Environmental Employment form the basis of the EP (Environmental Professional) designation that is offered through ECO Canada’s Environmental Professional Certifications. For more information on certification, please visit www.eco.ca/certification.
How are the National Occupational Standards Structured?
In technical terms, competencies are the outcomes of applying relevant knowledge and skills in the performance of a task. These competency statements are the foundation of the sub-sector model for environmental employment and the Environmental Professional (EP) certification program, which is awarded by ECO Canada and overseen by the Canadian Environmental Certification Approvals Board (CECAB).
The Standards provide a description of the competencies required by practitioners with 5 or more years of experience within a designated sub-sector and occupational level. They consist of 309 technical competency statements organized into 17 main categories and 35 sub-categories. In addition to technical environmental competencies, there are also 42 transferable competencies. These competencies are used to create a set of “NOS profiles” or occupational profiles that cover the 3 sectors and 13 sub-sectors.
(See Sector Model below.)
How often are the National Occupational Standards updated?
The NOS are updated approximately every 5 years to ensure that they remain accurate and reflective of the current realities of environmental employment. The most recent update was the result of rigorous research and analysis, including a national online survey, focus groups held across Canada and consultations with myriad environmental experts.
This rigorous research and validation process resulted in some interesting and significant changes to the NOS structure, such as changes to the Sector Model. The 2010 Sector Model for environmental employment was developed by compiling a list of the areas of specialization that emerged through the information gathering and research process, together with a secondary list of industries common to environmental practice. The model, though containing fewer subsectors than in the past, is more inclusive and intuitive:
2010 Sector Model for Environmental Employment
The 2010 update of the Sector Model also saw the introduction of an Environmental Manager role. Because of its functional overlap with the work in all the other subsectors, the Environmental Manager area of practice was situated at the centre of the Venn diagram.
Environmental employment has evolved as a cross-sectoral, multidisciplinary area that requires specific attention to ensure the relevance and accuracy of the National Occupational Standards in order to best respond to current labour market issues.
As environmental employment continues to develop and mature, defining the scope of environmental professionals’ activities and competencies benefits not only all aspects of the industry’s human resources activities, but also serves to inform the academic community of the emerging needs of the labour market in the future. ECO Canada has, over the years, developed a sound methodology to collect and document materials related to the definition and National Occupational Standards for environmental employment. Ensuring a strong foundation as well as a common logic and language regarding environmental employment is among the most critical issues for the success of ECO Canada.