Work Experience and Under 18s Volunteering
Work Experience
At North West Kent Countryside Partnership, we offer work placements for students who have an interest in potentially pursuing a career in conservation or environmental work and may be completing their GCSEs, A-Levels or a relevant college course or university degree.
Our placements usually last between 1 to 2 weeks but we can discuss and arrange a longer one if desired. You may even wish to join us for one day a week as part of our volunteer team to get practical hands on experience throughout the year.
Currently we offer 4 placements for students between May-September when we are at our busiest and able to offer more activities and tasks to gain experience from. Your time with us should give you a good idea of what it is like to work for a non-profit organisation focused on improving the environment for nature and local communities.
Most of the time will be outdoor and practical based and will involve accompanying our staff on their varied project work such as:
- Wellbeing activities
- Education sessions
- Community events
- Site visits
- Survey work
- Practical conservation task days with our volunteer teams.
All training and supervision will be given by our staff and protective equipment will also be provided.
Applying
The work experience application window is open between the 12th January- 15th March each year so if you would like to apply for a placement with us please complete and submit the form by the deadline via the following link: Work Experience Application Form
We will review all application forms received by the deadline and will let all applicants know if they were successful or not by the end of March.
Under 18s Volunteering
If you have spare time and are thinking of volunteering, then perhaps you would like to consider doing this with us. Volunteering is a great way of contributing to your local community along with gaining valuable experience and skills. It looks great to future employers and when applying for further education.
Our volunteer days run every Wednesday and Thursday and therefore would suit someone who wants to volunteer during breaks from their studies such as school holidays or a gap year. Our volunteer days usually run from 9:00 to 16:00.
We transport our volunteers directly to site from our office at Hall Place in Bexley (Bourne Road, Bexley, DA5 1PQ) so there is no need for your own transport except getting to and from our office. Alternatively, you may wish to travel directly to the work sites if that is easier.
Task days are varied depending on which projects we have on at the time. They can be anything from scrub clearance and river work to creating ponds and community gardens. Our volunteering page has a list of our monthly tasks and can give you a idea of what we do: volunteering with us
It’s not just practical skills such as habitat management techniques and tool use that you will learn but also communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills.
Anyone wanting to volunteer with us under the age of 18 will need to provide proof of parental or guardian consent and anyone under the age of 16 will need to be accompanied on volunteering days by their parent or guardian.
All under 18s will be supervised by our members of staff who are all DBS checked and any training necessary will be provided, along with appropriate protective equipment e.g. gloves and steel toe capped boots.
If you are interested in starting volunteering with us or would like more information then please contact our volunteer coordinator Stephanie Johnson at: Stephanie.Johnson@kent.gov.uk