About Our Opportunity
Are you a recent graduate (within the last 12 months) with an interest in climate change adaptation and the water resources sector? If yes, this may be the job for you!
This is an approximately 1-year term internship with the Dalhousie University School of Planning. You will assist with the implementation of Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate Change’s (ECC) Climate Change Adaptation Leadership Programme (CALP). This is a professional skills development and capacity building programme, designed to prepare provincial departments and their external stakeholders from the water resources sector for climate-related risks and opportunities. This program is designed, part-funded and led by ECC.
This position supports two CALP processes happening in parallel. One involves creating a cross-divisional climate change adaptation strategy for the ECC government department. The other process is a multi-stakeholder process involving organisations from across Nova Scotia’s water resources sector – ones that work with communities or the environment, industry and agriculture representatives, ones involved in drinking water and sanitation, etc. – coming together to create a climate change adaptation strategy for the sector.
You will work under the guidance of the ECC Climate Adaptation Coordinator to implement programme activities with the department, and with water resources sector partners. As a member of the ECC Adaptation team, you will be invited to participate in overall team meetings as well as relevant workshops, learning and reflection sessions.
Within this role, you will assist the Climate Adaptation Coordinator in:
- Designing, facilitating and capturing data from workshops;
- Developing presentations and other communication materials and graphics;
- Writing reports and progress updates and reflecting on progress and lessons learned;
- Conducting data analysis and research;
- Helping to build sustainable multi-stakeholder teams and projects, and,
- Supporting the delivery of the following products: department and industry risk, opportunity and capacity assessments; customized climate adaptation strategies and project activities; 3-5-year implementation and sustainability plans; and funding proposals as required.
About You
To excel within this role, you must be imaginative, dedicated and a critical thinker. You can use data, theory, and best practice to identify creative and practical approaches to building stakeholders’ capacity to adapt to climate change.
You must be a recent graduate in a related field (graduated in the last 12 months). The minimum requirement is an undergraduate honours degree; however, a postgraduate degree is preferred. You must clearly demonstrate your skills in research, data analysis and written and oral communication. Direct work experience in climate adaptation or water resources is preferred. You must show that you have a special interest in this field and an intention to pursue it as a possible career path. You have a proven track record of working both independently and collaboratively with a team.
Though it is not a requirement, you are encouraged to identify any experience in grant writing, survey design and analysis, monitoring and evaluation, experiential learning and more immersive, arts-based forms of engagement. We also encourage you to identify other skills which you think would be assets in this role in your cover letter.
Other Considerations
Annual Salary of $40,000 (including employer contributions to benefits) based on a 35-hour work week. The anticipated start date is May 24, 2021.
This position may require some limited travel across the province. Although not required, it will be an asset to have a driver’s license or a reliable alternative form of transportation.
Application process
Please submit:
- Your resume and maximum 2-page cover letter (merged into one PDF document).
- Please also submit (in a separate PDF document where your name is only indicated in the file name, not in the body of the text) your answers to the two questions below.
- What do you think the top climate change-related threats to Nova Scotia’s water resources are? Please create a bullet-point list, maximum 200 words.
- What are some of the challenges that might threaten the effectiveness of a multi-stakeholder team that might not be used to collaborating across organizational and disciplinary boundaries? What are some approaches you might try to help overcome these challenges? Please answer these questions in maximum 400 words.
Files should be submitted to: [email protected]
Please indicate you saw this posting at GoodWork.
All questions should be addressed to the following email addresses (please do not send application documents to these email addresses): [email protected] and [email protected]
Application deadline: 03 May 2021 (11:59 PM). We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. This position will be filled subject to final budget approval.
Dalhousie University is committed to fostering a collegial culture grounded in diversity and inclusiveness. The university encourages applications from Indigenous persons, persons with a disability, racially visible persons, women, persons of a minority sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and all candidates who would contribute to the diversity of our community. For more information, please visit http://www.dal.ca/hiringfordiversity.
Note: career breaks taken for family or medical needs or community responsibilities will not negatively impact the assessment of your application.
About Dalhousie University School of Planning
The School of Planning is located within the Faculty of Architecture and Planning at Dalhousie University. The School of Planning offers a professional planning education to students from Canada, the United States and abroad. Our faculty are committed to planning communities through coastal planning, environmental planning, transportation research, housing policy development, public health research, and social planning. We provide a rigorous education in planning and advance planning research and professional practice through teaching, research, and professional and community service.
About Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change (ECC)
Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change’s Adaptation team supports provincial departments, industry stakeholders and communities to prepare for climate change. We help our partners to identify and understand current and future impacts of climate change on their operations, sector, stakeholders, mandate, and goals, as well as broader implications for communities, landscapes, ecosystems and infrastructure. We offer resource support, educational training and assistance in assessment and strategy design and implementation. We also help coordinate large multi-stakeholder climate adaptation capacity building initiatives inside and outside of government.
