Work experience

Group of people stood around a dry stone wall pausing their work to pose for the camera. They are in the Yorkshire Dales

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.

We are not currently recruiting for any Voluntary Placement opportunities, but please check back throughout the year for new roles.

Work Experience for school and college students

There are no work experience placments currently available.

 

Trainee Savannah holding a lamb

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. 

Read Savannah's story about how her year went!