Environmental health practitioner

In your day-to-day duties you may:

• inspect businesses for health and safety, food hygiene and food standards
• investigate outbreaks of food poisoning and infectious disease
• collect samples for laboratory testing
• inspect houses to make sure they're safe for people to live in
• enforce environmental health laws and give evidence in court
• investigate accidents at work
• investigate noise and environmental nuisance complaints
• provide advice to community groups or businesses and give educational talks to improve people’s health

• active listening skills
• analytical thinking skills
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• the ability to think clearly using logic and reasoning
• legal knowledge including court procedures and government regulations
• patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
• excellent verbal communication skills
• excellent written communication skills
• to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

You're likely to need a full, clean driving licence for this job.

You can get into this job through:

• a university course
• an apprenticeship
• working towards this role

With experience you could work as an employee or consultant in:

• local authorities
• government departments
• retailers and hotel chains
• regulators and enforcement agencies
• the NHS
• the armed services
• university research
• charities and international development organisations

You could progress to supervisory or management positions.