Volunteer placements

Every year we are pleased to offer a rare opportunity to gain excellent practical experience at our fabulous wetland sites by offering a number of interesting placements.

WWT staff member and volunteer by some water

These opportunities are ideal for students currently on an undergraduate degree course who are looking for a sandwich year. However they are also open to graduates or non-students who are looking to gain practical experience.

Applications for placements starting in August 2023 are now closed. No further recruitments are planned for these placements but should any additional roles become available they will be shown here.

Recruitment for placements starting in August 2024 will open during January 2024. General information on our placements is below along with a little insight into what it is like to do a placement at WWT from some of last year’s placements. Please check back on this page in January when more information will be available, along with details on how to apply.

WWT offers a structured learning opportunity to our student placements, who make a huge difference to our work every year. You will:

Gain technical skills and knowledge in your chosen field
Improve your employability, being able demonstrate skills and experience of working within a highly respected, complex and effective workplace; and
Learn about wetland conservation and the conservation sector.

Placements typically last one year, but may be shorter – details will be in the recruitment pack for each opportunity.

WWT commits to providing a genuine learning experience, one that we will support you to plan, track and evidence. You’ll receive a high quality welcome and induction and will be a fully-fledged member of your team.

Most placements will have the opportunity to undertake a specific project – as required by your course, or as personal development.

You’ll receive training, support, uniform and equipment – all specific to your placement. You’ll have access to our employee assistance programme and a Volunteering Development Officer, there to provide any guidance you need and who will look out for your welfare, alongside your manager and team.

WWT provides either accommodation or a contribution to cost of living.

Some accommodation is on site, some is near and you will need to make your way to site. You will usually be living with other placements. Details are in the recruitment pack for each opportunity.

Cost of living contributions are based on location:

London, Arundel - £10k pa
Steart Marshes, Slimbridge*, Martin Mere* - 8k pa
Castle Espie: £5kpa

*Most but not all placements at Slimbridge and Martin Mere include accommodation. The recruitment pack will detail what is available for each role.

Unfortunately we cannot offer a cost of living contribution instead of accommodation.

Meet some of our previous placements:

: Watch our interview with Chandani, volunteer placement at WWT Washington
In September 2021, Chandani joined the Living Collections team at WWT Washington as their year long placement. Working towards a degree in Zoology at Lincoln, she moved to Washington, WWT’s wetland centre on the banks of the River Wear. “The team at Washington are a great bunch and they really helped me feel at home here”.

When she started, Chandani was ready for working outside, in all weathers, long days and manual work. But it was her first experience working full time with a team. Over the year she gained so much experience and confidence. From handling birds, delivering talks to visitors, to helping the team deal with an outbreak of Avian Inluenza, the work was varied.

As well as providing training and access to all sorts of experiences, the team at Washington ran a mock recruitment, helping Chandani to really think about what she’d learnt and how it could apply to different jobs.

When she back to finish her degree, Chandani realised how much her time at Washington had boosted her confidence. “The impact on me has been huge”.

“Expressing every change, challenge, and area of growth through my time at WWT is incredibly difficult but during my time here I have developed in confidence in areas around birds, machines and tools and effective communication with people. I now have a greater appreciation of birds and the work that WWT does as a charity as well as the importance of wetlands as a unique ecosystem.”
: Kate has fond memories of Washington Wetland Centre as a child. She still remembers her first time feeding a goose and is interested in the power of these kinds of experiences. Kate had graduated in Biology from Newcastle University, specialising in plants, and had planned an academic career. Feeling too disconnected from the implications of her work on the real world, Kate did some volunteering and then applied for the Practical Reserves placement at WWT Washington. “The people are just amazing – such a friendly, lovely bunch.”

As well as learning to use a full range of machinery and equipment to manage habitats, Kate got involved in wildlife surveying. Great Crested Newts and Bats were the highlights – both rare opportunities that had a real impact. “Wading around in ponds, never quite knowing what was going to happen. I’d never seen a Great Crested Newt before – the patterns on their belly are really gorgeous.” Applying her skills and running events like Bat Evenings for visitors was a highlight. Kate loves the bats so much she now volunteers with the local bat group as a bat carer.

What really stands out to Kate, is how much she was treated as part of the team. “I was trained well, they invested time in me teaching things – I gained loads of practical skills that I would never have got by myself.” So much so that Kate is about to start as a permanent member of staff – as a Reserves Warden at Washington.
: Abi had an odd start to her placement in August 2020. Much of the team were still furloughed and Slimbridge was unusually quiet. But colleagues stepped into the breach and Abi got stuck in to her Reserves Management HQ: Office and Research role. “Working with all the people is amazing – I made great contacts, for life I think, because everyone is so supportive and encouraging.”

The role crosses teams so Abi got to be involved in lots of different areas of work. She predominantly worked with the Wetland Science team and the Reserves Management team at Slimbridge. The role sits at the intersection of Reserves and Research – “it’s interesting to see how they meet and interact. It’s the kind of role that gives opportunities – you need to be able to grab them.”

The role gave Abi a window into how reserves are managed, how management plans are written and what they focus on – it gave a real sense of what the data means in practice. As well as enjoying field and lab work, Abi got involved in environmental eel DNA surveys. This interesting and emerging technology really grabbed her attention. Developing eDNA skills in the lab during extraction helped Abi to get her masters. She’s now working at WWT as a Researcher for our Flourishing Floodplains project, focussing a lot on eDNA. Abi is hoping to go on a do a PhD in this subject – those hours sampling water by the Severn have had a huge impact.

Volunteer