Mid-Career Educational Opportunities in Ecosystem Management

The skills needed to effectively manage natural resources have changed dramatically over the past two decades, and the rate of change will likely accelerate in coming years. For example, many important sources of current knowledge, including conservation biology, landscape ecology, and collaborative resource management, are developing rapidly. It will take time for newly-educated professionals to assume leadership positions. Consequently, it is essential to develop the capabilities of individuals already working in the field or holding leadership positions. Mid-career professional education can help forge capacity in all sectors that will enable agencies, organizations and firms to deal with 21st Century conservation challenges.

Strategies

In order to develop the capabilities of resource management professionals, EMI is developing four concurrent strategies.

• Mid-career courses EMI has begun to offer targeted, short courses to provide up-to-date, innovative, and effective educational experiences to a variety of government and NGO audiences. EMI is exploring the possibility of offering longer degree or certificate programs for mid-career professionals, as well. For more detailed information, visit our mid-career training courses in collaboration/negotiation and evaluation/adaptive management.
• Coaching/Mentoring/Action research EMI is exploring ways to facilitate the exchange of on-the-ground skills between professionals and to evaluate and learn from such varied experiences.
• Innovative training materials EMI is in the process of developing a full range of innovative training materials that will include simulations, exercises, cases, video, web-interactive tools and other approaches for promoting active and quasi-experiential education.
• Student-Researcher connections By structuring courses to facilitate interaction, EMI hopes to promote interaction among pre-career graduate students and mid-career students and researchers. EMI will also continue to link professionals with researchers in order to build a network that can identify critical research needs and diffuse current research into practice.

How to Learn More

We welcome inquires by agencies and groups about ideas and assistance in building their skills and understanding of the collaborative dimensions of ecosystem management.