Work experience

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.

Interested? View our Current Placements below...

Voluntary Placement - North Team Survey & Monitoring | York based, with site visits in North & West Yorkshire | 2-3 days per week (flexible)

Work Experience for school and college students

We have a week long work experience opportunity aimed at Year's 10-13 students in June or July depending on your placement dates. The placement would be based from our head office in York with travel to some of our reserves in the York area. Please see the timetable below which gives you an outline of what you could expect. This schedule is subject to change due to staff availability and weather conditions on the day.

If you would like to apply for this opportunity please complete the application form below and return it to: volunteering@ywt.org.uk