Good morning everyone. My name’s Janet Parker and I’m the human resources manager. We’re very happy to welcome you to your new apprenticeship. I hope that the next six months will be a positive and enjoyable experience for you.

I’d like to start with some general advice about being an apprentice. Most of you have very little or no experience of working for a big organisation and the first week or so may be quite challenging. There will be a lot of new information to take in but don’t worry too much about trying to remember everything. The important thing is to check with someone if you’re not sure what to do – you’ll find your supervisor is very approachable and won’t mind explaining things or helping you out. You’re here to learn so make the most of that opportunity. You’ll be spending time in different departments during your first week so make an effort to talk to as many people as possible about their work – you’ll make some new friends and find out lots of useful information.

As well as having a supervisor, you’ll each be assigned a mentor. This person will be someone who’s recently completed an apprenticeship and you’ll meet with them on a weekly basis. Their role is to provide help and support throughout your apprenticeship. Of course, this doesn’t mean they’ll actually do any of your work for you – instead they’ll be asking you about what goals you’ve achieved so far, as well as helping you to identify any areas for improvement. You can also discuss your more long-term ambitions with them as well.

————————

Now I just want to run through a few company policies for our apprenticeship scheme with you… Most importantly, the internet. As part of your job you’ll be doing some research online so obviously you’ll have unlimited access for that but please don’t use it for personal use – you’ll have your own phones for that.

Some of you have already asked me about flexible working. After your probationary three-month period – some of you will be eligible for this – but it will depend on which department you’re in and what your personal circumstances are. So please don’t assume you’ll automatically be permitted to do this.

I want to make sure there’s no confusion about our holiday policy. Apart from any statutory public holidays we ask that you don’t book any holidays until after your six-month apprenticeship has finished. Time off should only be taken if you are unwell. Please speak to your supervisor if this is going to be a problem.

You’ll be expected to work a 40-hour week but there may be opportunities to do overtime during busy periods. Although you’re not required to do this, it can be a valuable experience – so we advise you to take it up if possible. Obviously, we understand that people do have commitments outside work, so don’t worry if there are times when you are unavailable.

As you know, we don’t have a formal dress code here – you may wear casual clothes as long as they’re practical – and the only restriction for shoes we have is on high heels for health and safety reasons. Comfortable shoes like trainers are preferable.

There’s a heavily subsidised canteen on site where you can get hot meals or salads cheaply. Snacks and drinks are also provided – so we’ve decided to introduce a no packed lunch policy. This is partly to encourage healthy eating at work and partly to stop people from eating at their workstation, which is unhygienic.

OK moving on to …

TUTOR: OK, so what I’d like you to do now is to talk to your partner about your presentations on urban planning. You should have done most of the reading now, so I’d like you to share your ideas, and talk about the structure of your presentation and what you need to do next.

CARLA: OK Rob. I’m glad we chose quite a specific topic – cities built next to the sea. It made it much easier to find relevant information.

ROB: Yeah. And cities are growing so quickly – I mean, we know that more than half the world’s population lives in cities now.

CARLA: Yeah, though that’s all cities, not just ones on the coast. But most of the biggest cities are actually built by the sea. I’d not realised that before.

ROB: Nor me. And what’s more, a lot of them are built at places where rivers come out into the sea. But apparently this can be a problem.

CARLA: Why?

ROB: Well, as the city expands, agriculture and industry tend to spread further inland along the rivers, and so agriculture moves even further inland up the river. That’s not necessarily a problem, except it means more and more pollutants are discharged into the rivers.

CARLA: So these are brought downstream to the cities?

ROB: Right. Hmm. Did you read that article about Miami, on the east coast of the USA?

CARLA: No.

ROB: Well, apparently back in the 1950s they build channels to drain away the water in case of flooding.

CARLA: Sounds sensible.

ROB: Yeah, they spent quite a lot of money on them. But what they didn’t take into account was global warming. So they built the drainage channels too close to sea level, and now sea levels are rising, they’re more or less useless. If there’s a lot of rain, the water can’t run away, there’s nowhere for it to go. The whole design was faulty.

CARLA: So what are the authorities doing about it now?

ROB: I don’t know. I did read that they’re aiming to stop disposing of waste into the ocean over the next ten years.

CARLA: But that won’t help with flood prevention now, will it?

ROB: No. Really they just need to find the money for something to replace the drainage channels, in order to protect against flooding now. But in the long term they need to consider the whole ecosystem.

CARLA: Right. Really, though, coastal cities can’t deal with their problems on their own, can they? I mean, they’ve got to start acting together at an international level instead of just doing their own thing.

ROB: Absolutely. The thing is, everyone knows what the problems are and environmentalists have a pretty good idea of what we should be doing about them, so they should be able to work together to some extent. But it’s going to be a long time before countries come to a decision on what principles they’re prepared to abide by.

CARLA: Yes, if they ever do.

——————————

CARLA: So I think we’ve probably got enough for our presentation. It’s only fifteen minutes.

ROB: OK. So I suppose we’ll begin with some general historical background about why coastal cities were established. But we don’t want to spend too long on that, the other students will already know a bit about it. It’s all to do with communications and so on.

CARLA: Yes. We should mention some geographical factors, things like wetlands and river estuaries and coastal erosion and so on. We could have some maps of different cities with these features marked.

ROB: On a handout you mean? Or some slides everyone can see?

CARLA: Yeah, that’d be better.

ROB: It’d be good to go into past mistakes in a bit more detail. Did you read that case study of the problems there were in New Orleans with flooding a few years ago?

CARLA: Yes, We could use that as the basis for that part of the talk. I don’t think the other students will have read it, but they’ll remember hearing about the flooding at the time.

ROB: OK. So that’s probably enough background.

CARLA: So then we’ll go on to talk about what action’s being taken to deal with the problems of coastal cities.

ROB: OK. What else do we need to talk about? Maybe something on future risks, looking more at the long term, if populations continue to grow.

CARLA: Yeah. We’ll need to do a bit of work there, I haven’t got much information, have you?

ROB: No. We’ll need to look at some websites. Shouldn’t take too long.

CARLA: OK. And I think we should end by talking about international implications. Maybe we could ask people in the audience. We’ve got people from quite a lot of different places.

ROB: That’d be interesting, if we have time, yes. So now shall we …

Producing enough energy to meet our needs has become a serious problem. Demand is rising rapidly, because of the world’s increasing population and expanding industry. Burning fossil fuels, like gas, coal and oil, seriously damages the environment and they’ll eventually run out. For a number of years now, scientists have been working out how we can derive energy from renewable sources, such as the sun and wind, without causing pollution. Today I’ll outline marine renewable energy – also called ocean energy – which harnesses the movement of the oceans.

Marine renewable energy can be divided into three main categories: wave energy, tidal energy and ocean thermal energy conversion, and I’ll say a few words about each one.

First, wave energy. Numerous devices have been invented to harvest wave energy, with names such as Wave Dragon, the Penguin and Mighty Whale, and research is going on to try and come up with a really efficient method. This form of energy has plenty of potential, as the source is constant, and there’s no danger of waves coming to s standstill. Electricity can be generated using onshore systems, using a reservoir, or offshore systems. But the problem with ocean waves is that they’re erratic, with the wind making them travel in every direction. This adds to the difficulty of creating efficient technology: ideally all the waves would travel smoothly and regularly along the same straight line. Another drawback is that sand and other sediment on the ocean floor might be stopped from flowing normally, which can lead to environmental problems.

——————————

The second category of marine energy that I’ll mention is tidal energy. One major advantage of using the tide, rather than waves, as a source of energy is that it’s predictable: we know the exact time of high and low tides for years to come.

For tidal energy to be effective, the difference between high and low tides needs to be at least five metres, and this occurs naturally in only about forty places on Earth. But the right conditions can be created by constructing a tidal lagoon, an area of sea water separated from the sea.

One current plan is to create a tidal lagoon on the coast of Wales. This will be an area of water within a bay at Swansea, sheltered by a U-shaped breakwater, or dam, built out from the coast. The breakwater will contain sixteen hydro turbines, and as the tide rises, water rushes through the breakwater, activating the turbines, which turn a generator to produce electricity. Then, for three hours as the tide goes out, the water is held back within the breakwater, increasing the difference in water level, until it’s several metres higher within the lagoon than in the open sea. Then, in order to release the stored water, gates in the breakwater are opened. It pours powerfully out of the lagoon, driving the turbines in the breakwater in the opposite direction and again generating thousands of megawatts of electricity. As there are two high tides a day, this lagoon scheme would generate electricity four times a day, every day, for a total of around 14 hours in every 24 – and enough electricity for over 150,000 homes.

This system has quite a lot in its favour: unlike solar and wind energy it doesn’t depend on the weather; the turbines are operated without the need for fuel, so it doesn’t create any greenhouse gas emissions; and very little maintenance is needed. It’s estimated that electricity generated in this way will be relatively cheap, and that manufacturing the components would create than 2,000 jobs, a big boost to the local economy.

On the other hand, there are fears that lagoons might harm both fish and birds, for example by disturbing migration patterns, and causing a build-up of silt, affecting local ecosystems.

There are other forms of tidal energy, but I’ll go on to the third category of marine energy: ocean thermal energy conversion. This depends on there being a big difference in temperature between surface water and the water a couple of kilometres below the surface, and this occurs in tropical coastal areas. The idea is to bring cold water up to the surface using a submerged pipe. The concept dates back to 1881, when …