Wildwood jobs & trainee posts

Jobs & Trainee posts at Wildwood

 

 

Heritage Lottery Fund Skills for the Future Trainees

The Skills for the Future programme is a Heritage Lottery Fund supported scheme, to provide work based training opportunities for people wanting to work in the heritage sector.

Wildwood Trust has positions available for four Trainee Officers to work directly with our natural heritage conservation, education, maintenance and keeper teams and learn skills to prepare them for a career working to protect and promote our natural heritage and environment.

These roles will suit fit, practical people who are able to work outdoors during all weathers to support the continued growth and development of Wildwood's work. This includes our educational work with children and disadvantaged social groups wishing to learn about our natural heritage and its future conservation, and our conservation work with British species and Wildwood's ancient woodland. 

• The training period is advertised as 37 hrs a week, for 51 weeks only.
• Trainees will receive a training bursary of £10,000, paid in monthly instalments.
• Please note that accommodation and travel costs are not included.

To apply
Please read the trainee position details below, visit our jobs page and download the relevant job pack and return to us by post or email to jess@wildwoodtrust.org

The closing date for applications is 7th September

 

Conservation trainee

Key tasks:

• Learn how to care for our collection of British native endangered animals including animal diet, handling and care, and practical skills for enclosure enrichment,
• Learn to manage animal enclosures for conservation captive breeding programmes for a range of UK species, ensuring the animal's welfare comes first,
• Learn to help educate the public through talks and demonstrations about our animals
• Learn to help with our conservation projects with endangered species
• Learn how to enter data collected on animal sightings and field surveys, and how to complete the animal management records and work diaries.

Desired skills/qualifications:

• An academic qualification such as a BSc in Wildlife Conservation
• Experience of working with animals in a conservation/zoo setting
• Knowledge of British wildlife or environmental conservation
• Knowledge of basic tool use

 Click here to visit our jobs page and download the Conservation Trainee job pack

 

Education Trainee

Key tasks:

• Learn how we deliver a core education service for schools and disadvantaged groups visiting Wildwood, including an introduction to teaching UK conservation and biodiversity to a wide range of people with different abilities and requirements, developing strong communication skills and confidence in working with school groups and the public
• Gain a strong working knowledge of British wildlife past and present, causes of UK species extinctions and declines and conservation
• Become familiar with a range of National curriculum led natural science topics, including animal adaptation and field signs, coppice woodland habitat, ecological sampling techniques, plant and invertebrate identification

Desired skills/qualifications:

• A science-based academic qualification such as a biology degree
• Experience of teaching/mentoring
• Knowledge of British wildlife or environmental conservation
• Awareness of appropriate software packages, including PowerPoint and Word

Click here to visit our jobs page and download the Education Trainee job pack

 

Maintenance (ranger) Trainee

Key tasks:

• Learn how to keep the Wildwood grounds and facilities in excellent working order, ensuring the minimum of disruption to visitors and staff.
• Learn how to construct new animal enclosures and help our keeper team create suitable habitats for a range of UK species, ensuring the animal's welfare comes first
• Learn how to help manage an ancient woodland habitat including managing coppice woodland  sustainably whilst protecting woodland biodiversity
• You will be required to support your line manager to ensure that you follow Wildwood's Health and Safety arrangements.
  

Desired skills/qualifications:

• Experience of construction work
• Knowledge of British wildlife or environmental conservation
• Knowledge of basic tool use

Click here to visit our jobs page and download the Maintenance Trainee job pack

 

Keeper Trainee

Key tasks:

• Learn how to care for our collection of British native & once native wildlife, including caring for and managing a range of UK species, ensuring the animal's welfare comes first, recognition of tracks and signs, animal diet, handling and care, and practical skills for enclosure enrichment.
• Learn to help educate the public through talks and demonstrations about our animals, including developing strong communication skills and confidence in working with groups and the public.
• Learn how to complete the animal management records and work diaries.
  

Desired skills/qualifications:

• Experience of working with animals
• Knowledge of British wildlife and environmental conservation
• Knowledge of basic tool use

Click here to visit our jobs page and download the Keeper Trainee job pack

 

Cafe Supervisor

Job title: Café supervisor

Hours: Full or part time

Salary: £6.30 per hour

Reports to: Café Manager

 

We are looking for a friendly, organised person to act as Café supervisor in Wildwood's busy Beaver Lodge café.  The café is an attractive log cabin style building situated at the heart of wildwood with an 80 seat café and veranda. It has a large kiosk and about 20 picnic tables attractively scattered around woodland and overlooking the adventure playground.

Job description

• As a shift supervisor in the Beaver Lodge Cafe, you will be expected to take charge of quiet shifts in the management team's absence.
• Experience in catering is essential.
• Training or supervisory skills would be distinct advantage.
• Training will be provided in respect to the Café's operation.
• The post is subject to a 3 month probationary period.
• Minimum age requirement of 18.
  

How to apply

Please submit your CV and covering letter explaining why you would be the right candidate to:

By email: cafe@wildwoodtrust.org

By post:   FAO: Tess Newton, Wildwood Trust, Herne Common, Herne Bay, Kent, CT6 7LQ

 

The Wildwood Team
Tel 01227 712 111

 

 

 

Heritage skills 1 year trainee positions at Wildwood

Heritage Skills Trainee positions available at The Wildwood Trust

 

Wildwood is now inviting new applications for our 2012/13 Skills for the Future training programme. After two hugely successful years which have seen trainees go on to start careers in wildlife, zoos and conservation we are ready to recruit our next batch of trainees to learn wildlife and conservation skills.

 

Tess Kingham, Wildwood's Fundraising Manager said "It's so exciting to be able to give people a chance to train in wildlife and conservation.  In the current economic climate it can be difficult for people to get hands-on work experience, but thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund we can offer vital work experience and training for people to take on to their future careers"

 

The 3-year project is funded by a £150,000 grant by the Heritage Lottery fund under their Skills for the Future programme. The grant is funding the training of four trainees per year, over a period of three years, with each trainee receiving a training bursary of £10,000 for the year they train with us.

 

The scheme is great for zoos, wildlife trusts and conservation organisations such as The Wildwood Trust which require a wide range of skills from staff, from providing public education workshops to managing woodland and conservation areas and supporting endangered species captive breeding programmes. These skills are hard to obtain without on-the-job training, so the Skills for the Future programme has been developed to offer specialised training places. After this final year, Wildwood will have provided training for three trainee rangers, three trainee keepers, three conservation trainees, and three trainee education officers.

 

The project will allow Wildwood to train new people in wildlife and conservation skills which will provide a sustainable, representative workforce to protect the UK's native animals and habitats from further decline. On completion of their training the trainees will be able to take their skills on to further education or into employment.

 

Ranger trainees will learn coppicing and coppice management, woodland management, dead hedging, arboriculture, endangered species enclosure design and construction.

Conservation trainees will learn about conservation initiatives including endangered species release programmes, conservation grazing management, handling small animals and engaging the public in species recognition.

Keeper Trainees will learn endangered species enclosure design, animal enrichment, food preparation, diet and weight analysis, and animal husbandry.

Conservation Education trainees will learn how to develop and deliver workshops targeted at visiting schools and groups, and will develop skills including preparing educational resources, setting and monitoring traps, species recognition, and how to handle small animals for workshops.

 

The posts are for one year only and are aimed at those interested in following a career in conservation. The successful candidates will be expected to complete a portfolio of evidence of the skills they have learned. The training will provide the groundwork and experience required for those considering either further academic training (e.g. a conservation degree, or diploma) or developing their career by joining a zoo, wildlife trust or other conservation organisation.

 

Further details about the training positions and how to apply can be found at www.wildwoodtrust.org The deadline for applications is the 7^th September 2012

 

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Images attached - for more images please email: fiona@wildwoodtrust.org

 

Skills for the Future

The Heritage Lottery Funds' (HLF) Skills for the Future programme offers work-based training in a wide range of skills that are needed to look after buildings, landscapes, habitats, species, and museum and archive collections, as well as equipping people to lead education and outreach programmes, manage volunteers and use new technology. Its focus is on vocational learning, helping meet the skills gaps identified by heritage bodies, and on encouraging potential trainees from all walks of life. Trainees will learn how to engage families, schools and communities with their heritage, bringing heritage sites and collections alive for the next generation.

Aims
The aims of Skills for the Future are to:

§  fund high quality work based training opportunities to equip people with the skills to pursue a career in heritage;

§  enhance the capacity of the heritage sector to deliver sustainable training and share good practice; and

§  demonstrate the value of heritage skills to modern life.

Outcomes
To receive a grant a project must deliver all of the following four outcomes:

§  increase the range and quality of work-based training to develop skills in the heritage sector;

§  meet identified skills gaps or shortages in the heritage sector;

§  increase the capacity of the sector to deliver training and share good practice; and

§  increase the diversity of the heritage workforce.

 

 

Fiona Paterson
Marketing & Press officer
Wildwood Trust

e-mail: fiona@wildwoodtrust.org
Tel: 01227 712111
www.wildwoodtrust.org

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Wildwood Trust
Herne Common
Herne Bay
Kent
CT6 7LQ

Registered Charity No 1093702

Wildwood Trust is Kent's unique 'Woodland Discovery Park', a visitor attraction with a difference.

Wildwood is not only the best place to bring the family for a day out, but it is also a bold and innovative new charity, backed by the UK's leading wildlife conservationists. As a new charity Wildwood needs everyone's support in its mission to save our native and once native wildlife from extinction.

Wildwood Trust's vision is to bring back our true 'wildwood', a unique new way of restoring Britain's land to its natural state. This involves releasing large wild herbivores and developing conservation grazing systems to restore natural ecological processes to help Britain team with wildlife again.

The Wildwood 'Woodland Discovery Park' is an ideal day out for all the family where you can come 'nose to nose' with British Wildlife. Wildwood offers its members and visitors a truly inspirational way to learn about the natural history of Britain by actually seeing the wildlife that once lived here.

Set in a sublime 38 acres of Ancient Woodland, Wildwood offers visitors a truly unique experience. Come Nose to Nose with our secretive badgers, experience what it is like to be hunted by a real live pack of wolves, watch a charging wild boar or track down a beaver in his lodge.

Wildwood Trust runs a highly successful programme of Conservation Projects - we are the UK's leading experts in rescuing and re-establishing colonies of Britain's most threatened mammal, the water vole. Wildwood Trust has pioneered the use of ancient wild horses to restore nature reserve. Wildwood Trust has been at the forefront of efforts to re-establish the European Beaver back in Britain where they belong. European Beaver have been proven to help manage water ways to bring back a huge range of plants, insects and animals.