Are you a wildlife enthusiast interested in a conservation career?
Natur am Byth! unites nine environmental charities and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to deliver the country’s largest natural heritage and people engagement programme to save species from extinction and connect people to nature. Please click this link for more information.
The RSPB is looking for a trainee to gain knowledge, skills and experience in conservation, ready to play a vital role in securing a future for wildlife.
North Wales has many special places to immerse yourself in nature including mountains, wetlands, coastal habitats, and the sea. This traineeship will give you an opportunity to work across this landscape conserving the rarest and most endangered species as well as providing you with an insight into working for the RSPB and its project partners.
What’s the role about?
The trainee will be supported in monitoring a diverse range of target species and their habitats for the RSPB across the Lleyn Peninsula and Isle of Anglesey. Depending on your location, the availability of transport and personal interests, this may include identifying curlew breeding territories and locating nests, counting spotted rock-rose plants, recording observations of chough, assessing food availability for the large mason bee and surveying waterways for signs of water vole. You will also play a role in habitat management with volunteers, and take part in discussions with project partners, land managers and contractors regarding the conservation of different habitat types. There will also be opportunities to help raise the profile of target species through people engagement events and communications, such as social media posts, blogs and magazine articles.
During this traineeship, you will also gain experience working for the Marine Conservation Society on seagrass restoration at Porth Dinllaen and a water quality sampling initiative across this landscape. Plantlife will provide knowledge, skills and experience in the conservation of vascular plant species, such as juniper and you will have the opportunity to join technical specialists from NRW in monitoring red squirrels, bats and rare invertebrates.
The Natur am Byth! partnership will be recruiting three trainees at the same time hosted by the RSPB, Bumblee Conservation Trust and Buglife providing an opportunity to share your experiences and attend training courses to develop both conservation-specific and transferable skills such as project management, species identification, habitat surveys, conservation grazing, oral history interview techniques and social media content creation.
What We Need From You
Essential skills, knowledge and experience
- Strong interest in nature.
- Open, approachable and willingness to work with others.
- Able to listen and take direction.
- Able to focus and apply yourself to tasks.
- Confident travelling alone to locations.
- Familiar with Office 365, Google and social media platforms.
- Willingness to undertake work outside in all weathers.
Desirable Skills, Knowledge And Experience
- Knowledge of target species in North Wales, their identification and conservation issues (full list available at this link).
- Spoken Welsh.
Please note that the successful candidate will live within a reasonable travelling distance of the Lleyn Peninsula and Anglesey. It is an essential requirement that you can travel independently to sites where public transport may not be available. Expenses will be paid for costs in excess of normal travel.
- Please see the Welsh version of the advert attached.
This is a part-time role at 30 hours per week on a fixed-term contract for 8 months.
The RSPB reserves the right to extend or make this role permanent without further advertising dependent on business needs at the end of the contract term.
We are looking to conduct interviews for this position on Friday 28th March. For further information, please contact jack.slattery@rspb.org.uk.
As part of this application process, you will be asked to complete an application form including evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge, and experience listed above.
We are committed to developing an inclusive and diverse RSPB, in which everyone feels supported, valued, and able to be their full selves. To achieve our vision of creating a world richer in nature, we need more people, and more diverse people, on nature’s side. People of colour and disabled people are currently underrepresented across the environment, climate, sustainability, and conservation sector. If you identify as a person of colour and/or disabled, we are particularly interested in receiving your application. Contact us to discuss any additional support you may need to complete your application.
The RSPB is an equal opportunities employer. This role is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
This role is not eligible for UK Visa Sponsorship - the successful applicant will need to have a pre-existing Right to Work in the UK in order to be offered an employment contract.
Before applying for this role, we recommend reading through the Candidate guidance notes. These are available in Welsh on request.
