Work experience
Take the first steps into your Conservation Career with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Here at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, we know that the future of our amazing county lies in YOUR hands!
Whether you already have some conservation experience through work, volunteering or outside interests and you would like to take it further, or maybe you are a school or college student curious about the sector and wondering whether it's the career for you, we offer a range of development and learning opportunities throughout the year.
Voluntary Placements
Every year we have a number of structured Voluntary Placements available, each based in one of our teams here at the Trust. Typically between 3 and 6 months long, with a flexible time commitment of 2-3 days per week, every placement is designed to deliver a combination of hands-on experience alongside a team of knowledgeable staff, and opportunities for you to grow your knowledge and skills through training or spending time with a variety of teams.
Each placement is different, but recent roles have included areas such as Rivers & Wetlands, Surveying at Spurn Point and Conservation Grazing. We aim for our placements to be genuinely valuable for the volunteer, and often there will be the opportunity to take accredited training whilst on your placement. Placements could be focussed on one or more of our sites, but you will usually have a base at one of our regional offices (York, Doncaster, Huddersfield or Spurn Point). Along with reasonable travel expenses and fully funded training opportunities, volunteers on a placement with us also have access to our fantastic free volunteer training programme.
Of the volunteers who have spent time with YWT in similar roles, 80% went on to either secure their first paid job in the conservation, or to further or higher education courses linked to conservation.
Work Experience for school and college students
There are no work experience placements currently available.
Current Voluntary Placement Opportunities
Event and Engagement Voluntary Placement - Potteric Carr
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT)’s mission is to create a Yorkshire rich in wildlife for the benefit of everyone – more wildlife, more wild places and more people having a strong connection to nature.
Potteric Carr has an extensive education and event programme and no day is ever the same. For example, we could be leading guided walks or delving into our ponds with families, school children and teachers to discover the wonderful creatures that live there. We could also be organising and delivering fun educational workshops, such as sharing a Forest School campfire and cooking yummy food with a bunch of preschool kids or home educators. There really is a variety of challenges for you to get your teeth stuck into and this role is perfect for anyone wanting to pursue a career in learning, community engagement and participation.
The role of the Learning and Events Voluntary Placement is to support and be involved with Visitor Engagement, Operations and Visitor services teams. You will help in planning, development, and the practical delivery of a varied events programme for a variety of audiences.
This role will allow you to get an in-depth understanding of working in the conservation sector - you will gain experience in developing events for a variety of different audiences, learn about how to pitch information to different ages and abilities, discover how to embed EDI to our work and work with partner organisations.
This voluntary placement is for 6 months.
For more information and to apply for this role, please download the role description and send in a completed application form by the closing deadline, 9am, Monday 16th June to volunteering@ywt.org.uk
Interviews will be held at Potteric Carr on Monday 30th June.
The opportunity to get involved with lambing was a definite highlight of the year - (c) Savannah Witham
Savannah's Story
Savannah spent a year with our South Nature Reserves team gaining a huge ranges of new skills and experiences whilst she has been studying at university.