Find out the top 10 core skills you need to master as an environmental education specialist and what hard skills you need to know to succeed in this job.

An environmental education specialist creates environmental awareness and informs the public about preservation, sustainability, and conservation by planning, developing, and conducting programs in learning institutions or conferences. He/she provides educators with technical assistance for the integration and evaluation of environmental education in the school curriculum.

Other than giving advice on environmental education matters, other duties include; providing the public, educators, agencies and environmental educational centers the technical assistance and consultative services in planning, coordinating, delivery and evaluation of programs in environmental education. Other roles include interpreting and applying laws, rules, policies and regulations relating to environmental education programs; monitoring and reporting regularly on the environmental literacy in the area as well as developing and distribution resource materials.

Core Skills Required to be an Environmental Education Specialist

Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.

Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.

An environmental education specialist should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.

Safety at work:

Safety is being protected from hurt or other non-desirable outcomes that may tend to overrule a situation and cause damages of different kinds.

An Environmental Education Specialist must learn to keep the organization safe from different risks by developing a high sense of alertness that detects danger from afar and stops it before it causes risk, danger or injury in the organization.

Performance Management:

Performance Management is a method by which supervisors and employees work together to plan, monitor and review the employee's work objectives and overall contributions to the organization.

An Environmental Education Specialist should invest in performance management to shift the focus from the annual reports to a more continuous form of accountability by implementing periodic meetings while ensuring a continual push for progress rather than an immediate rush to meet objectives during the review time.

Participative Management:

Participative Management is also known as employee involvement is the participation of all stakeholders at all levels of the organization in the investigation of problems, development of strategies and implementation of solutions.

An Environmental Education Specialist should include the participative management in the enterprise to create open and honest communication, freedom and transparency solicit survey feedback and form self-managed teams that are easy to work with.

Supervisory Skills:

Supervisory Skills is the ability to lead and manage people effectively in a difficult and challenging atmosphere in the day to day life.

An Environmental Education Specialist must cultivate, develop and refine management and supervisory skills to strengthen the present as well as build the future of the business by becoming competent in such roles like problem-solving, communication, managing people, time management, leadership, planning, etc.

Cooperation with colleagues:

Cooperation is the process of working with groups or teams for a common mutual benefit as opposed to working in competition or for selfish ambition.

An Environmental Education Specialist should learn the art of creating a mutually beneficial exchange among the employees that dwells much on cooperation for the same mutual benefit with adequate resources for all to use rather than creating a spirit of competition.

Persistence:

Persistence is the refusal to give up or let go of a firm or obstinate continuous course of action despite difficulties or opposition that you may face.

An Environmental Education Specialist should strongly emphasize the need for persistence as the fundamental difference between a successful outcome and a failed one while developing this important quality in each creating happy employees and business.

Results Orientation:

Results Orientation is knowing and focusing on outstanding results and working hard to achieve them because they are significant.

An Environmental Education Specialist must understand and make it clear to the employees how important results are and the competitive and results driven market that the company is facing while encouraging them to remain focused on the results that every project bears without fail.

Using Common Sense:

Using Common Sense is the ability to see what is missing in a situation or a project and supplying it without necessarily being assigned or asked to do it.

An Environmental Education Specialist needs to creatively train his employees always to see the missing element that is typically crucial in any workplace or project and take the opportunity to do business out of it.

Quality of Work:

The quality of Work is the value of work or products produced by the employees as well as the work environment they are provided with.

An Environmental Education Specialist needs creativity in assisting all teams in identifying characteristics that will result in a quality product and lead to greater efficiency and increased productivity by following the four critical outcomes of employee retention, customer satisfaction, profitability, and productivity.

Intercultural Competence:

Intercultural Competence is the knowledge and skills to successfully interact with people from other ethnic, religious, cultural, national and geographic groups.

An Environmental Education Specialist should have a high degree of intercultural competence that enables him to have successful interactions with people from different groups as well as train his employees to be sensitive to the cultural differences and be willing to modify their behavior as a sign of respect for each other.

Hard Skills Required to be an Environmental Education Specialist

Hard skills are job-specific skill sets, or expertise, that are teachable and whose presence can be tested through exams. While core skills are more difficult to quantify and less tangible, hard skills are quantifiable and more defined.

Hard skills are usually listed on an applicant's resume to help recruiters know the applicant's qualifications for the applied position. A recruiter, therefore, needs to review the applicant's resume and education to find out if he/she has the knowledge necessary to get the job done.

An environmental education specialist should have a good command of the following hard skills to succeed in her job.

Environmental Education Specialist: Hard skills list

Analytical
Analyze and evaluate ecosystem data
Apply basic chemistry
Apply biological theory
Apply chemical laboratory tests
Apply chemistry theory
Apply emergency management principles
Apply fire suppression techniques
Apply linear algebra
Apply mathematics to statistical modeling
Apply plant materials principles
Apply principles of soil protection, improvement and conservation
Apply research methodology to science or engineering
Apply soil science principles
Conduct chemical analyses
Conduct investigations and research
Conduct laboratory research
Conduct qualitative analysis
Conduct quantitative analysis
Design tables depicting data
Develop and revise databases
Diagnose and solve agricultural production problems
Identify wood species and characteristics
Inspect fields or forests to detect plant diseases, pest infestations or noxious weeds
Interpersonal
Interpret and apply knowledge of relevant laws
Investigate crop damage caused by wildlife
Judge soil conditions
Make presentations
Material Science
Negotiate timber sales and reforestation contracts
Prepare reports in timely manner
Present technical papers and research results
Project Management
Read and interpret aerial photographs
Read maps
Read measuring and metering devices used in forestry
Recognize plant disease
Recognize tree and forest plant species
Research work-related topics using library resources
Technical
Technology
Understand, use, and communicate technical information
Use algebra
Use biological research techniques
Use calculus
Use cost-benefit analysis
Use gis software
Use long term forest planning techniques
Use maps in wilderness areas
Use quantitative research methods
Write grant proposals
Write project or bid proposals
Write technical papers from original research

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