AN ECO-MINDED graduate has worked her way up the ranks in the Environmental team on HS2.
Alice Harvey found her passion in the field of conservation after completing a module as part of her Animal Behaviour and Welfare degree at Solihull College and University Centre.
Fellow conservation lover and lecturer Claudine Barnes put Alice in touch with a former student who had got a job as an Ecologist at Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV), HS2’s construction partner for the West Midlands, and she ended up applying for a job as an Environmental Technician working on HS2.
And a few weeks after completing her final exam Alice was offered the job.
Within a year Alice was promoted to Environmental Coordinator where she is tasked with helping to ensure BBV’s 90km stretch of the HS2 route is environmentally compliant and advises site teams on environmental constraints and licensing requirements.
She said: “I enjoy going on site and building a strong rapport with my colleagues and raising their environmental awareness. I work on initiatives such as ensuring we reuse any waste wood to build bird boxes which we donate to local communities.”
Alice started her degree at the College as a mature student and credits the department’s head of school, Claire Powell, for providing her with options and guiding her towards the Animal Behaviour and Welfare degree.
