Curriculum FAQs

Why create a curriculum – what are its benefits?

The curriculum is a key driver for delivering Environmental Health – 2012, the vision statement for the development of environmental health over the next 10 years. It will:

• Position the environmental health profession at the heart of today’s public health agenda.
• Create an environmental health profession that can be flexibly deployed in the public, private and non-profit sectors and make its full contribution to joined-up public health management.
• Make environmental health a fully flexible career that opens doors to an unrivalled range of opportunities.
• Give practitioners a broader range of transferable skills and experience.
• Provide greater opportunities for work-based training placements in the private and non-profit sectors.

How was the curriculum developed?

The curriculum was devised following extensive consultation with educationalists and stakeholders including current and potential university course providers, CIEH members, government departments and agencies, and employer organisations.

How is the curriculum structured?

The curriculum for BSc and MSc courses focuses study onto the health impacts of today’s environment, while providing students with a firm technical grounding in the five key areas of environmental health – food safety and nutrition, housing, environmental protection, health and safety and public health. It places more emphasis on general management, communication, negotiating, analysing and evaluation skills and also concentrates heavily on interventions in environmental health and strategies for enabling compliance with legal requirements traditionally enforced by EHPs.

What form will work-based learning take?

40% of environmental health officers work outside local authoritie and the curriculum allows students to undertake much of their work-based learning in the private and non-profit sectors. The requirements for work-based learning reflect this and facilitate the attainment of the outcomes from any sector except, of course, for the issues relating to enforcement which can only really be achieved from spending time with an enforcement agency.

Are there professional exams?

Yes there are. The professional exams reflect the multi-sectoral base of environmental health and the concentration on intervention strategies.

Will any additional universities be accredited to run environmental health degree courses?

Yes. The University of Northumbria is currently in discussions with the CIEH about obtaining accreditation to run new environmental health courses from September 2004. Discussions with additional providers are also taking place.

What is the CIEH doing to encourage people already working in the environmental health field or related areas to qualify as EHPs?

The CIEH is keen to provide more career development opportunities for technical support staff and health specialists who may wish to qualify as environmental health practitioners. We are working with the accredited universities to put in place new routes to qualification, such as distance- and web-based learning. We are also continuing to promote the profession widely.