Careers in UK Hydrogeology

A review for the Hydrogeological Group of the Geological Society of London by Mike Streetly

In recent years there has been an abundance of anecdotal and empirical evidence of a shortage of hydrogeologists across all sectors. A key aspect of this is decreasing rates of entry of new practitioners. To better understand the scale and nature of the problem the Hydrogroup commissioned Mike Streetly to carry out a survey our behalf on the subject of access to careers in UK Hydrogeology. The results of that survey are summarised in this report.

The report considers findings from previous reviews of the profession and input from academic, corporate and regulatory institutions. It also draws on the feedback from 270 individual respondents to the HGC survey which, as Mike observes, is a substantial proportion of the total number of practicing Hydrogeologists in the UK.

Areas covered include the current state of the industry including routes into Hydrogeology, recruitment and retention, employees’ perception of their career choice, financial reward, the current (limited) available training, diversity within the industry, career development, anticipated future demand for hydrogeologists and ways to meet this.

The report recommends 25 actions to address the challenge of increasing entry into what is considered (by most!) to be a rewarding and interesting career. A lot of these actions fall mainly on the Hydrogroup itself, although these should also be of interest to other relevant committees and organisation such as IAH British Chapter, Groundwater Modellers Forum, UK Groundwater Forum and the Environment Agency amongst others.

As a starting point Hydrogroup have identified 10 priority actions to progress. These will be taken forward over the next few years. While Hydrogroup will be driving these it should be noted that a number of these tasks are enablers and the necessary changes won’t be achieved without the constructive input from the Hydrogeology profession itself.

Certainly, without intervention, the future of UK Hydrogeology looks worrying in numerous ways. It is not (yet!) too late to change though.

Please read, and please pass on any comment or feedback to info@hydrogroup.org.uk