Traineeship at the Trust

24 November 2023

Written by Hugo Gault

When I started my traineeship at the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in July this year, I was pleased to see that the Trust had several other traineeships currently ongoing and had supported trainee placements in the past: I felt that my placement here was in experienced hands. Now, three months in, I know that assessment was accurate, and as the three-month mark coincided perfectly with the end of the field season, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of the experiences of myself and other trainees at the Trust.

My trainee placement is through New to Nature – a programme offering employment mentorship and paid experience in new, full-time, year-long work placements in the environmental sector, with the aim of attracting diverse talent from communities currently underrepresented in environmental roles. And “new to nature” I certainly am! I have come into this work with no experience or education in the green/environmental sector, excepting some volunteering at my local waste reduction initiative. Aydan Khan, a fellow New to Nature placement at the Trust, started with the programme a few months before me, having come from working in the green infrastructure sector, where he built green roofs in Brighton and London. He tells me that after achieving a degree in biology, he had a keen interest in wildlife conservation. Once deciding that construction wasn’t for him, he left that sector and landed what he refers to as his best job yet: being a Bee Connected trainee at the Trust.

Aydan works in practical conservation, through the Bee Connected project, a landscape scale restoration ecology project, which aims to improve and create habitats for bumblebees with a focus on four of the UK’s rarest species, the Brown-banded carder bumblebee, Moss carder bumblebee, Red-shanked bumblebee and the Ruderal bumblebee. His role as a trainee involves bumblebee surveying, wildflower surveys, public outreach, and volunteer engagement and recruitment.

New to Nature is not the only programme supporting trainee placement roles. Heather Borland works as an ecologist and tour guide for Highland Titles – a family business that runs nature reserves by selling “souvenir” plots of land. Highland Titles is working collaboratively with the Trust, and this summer, Heather started a placement with us on our Great Yellow Bumblebee: On the Verge project in Caithness, where she has been surveying road verges for flowering plant diversity and density.

I am based at the Trust’s Stirling office, and I have two roles. I split my weeks between being a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) assistant and supporting the running of BeeWalk, our citizen science biological recording project. Overall, my work involves a lot of data handling, monitoring, and visualisation, and I have also been doing some work to improve BeeWalk’s volunteer resources. Being GIS trainee has allowed me to engage with scientific recording across a range of the Trust’s projects, allowing me to have insight into the Trust’s conservation work on a broad scale. Like me, Emma Bungay, another trainee has a more desk-based role, working on the Bee Inspired – Walsall project, which aims to provide volunteering opportunities to engage people with nature and bumblebees. The project works to accommodate access to nature for a diverse community by engaging with people in deprived areas. Emma tells me that the practical experience she gained while achieving a Level 2 Diploma in Work-based Environmental Conservation, through a traineeship with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, really helped to prepare her for a more community facing role at the Trust. 

Traineeships are rich learning opportunities, and I have already gained a wealth of knowledge: almost everything I’m doing is new, so I’m learning all the time! I’ve been supported in my development by highly knowledgeable staff to make a lot of progress with learning about bumblebee identification and ecology, how to use mapping software, and scientific data handling, none of which I had done before I started in this role. Currently, I am also branching out into some communication and engagement elements within my role. Aydan tells me, “This traineeship has given me the opportunity to develop my confidence and self-esteem within the workplace. It’s provided a safe environment to explore, experiment, make mistakes, and most importantly learn and grow. Working closely with some of the top bumblebee experts in the UK has provided quality insight; I have learnt bumblebee identification skills, pollinator ecology, wildflower meadow restoration amongst all that goes into public engagement and managing volunteers.” Heather shares that her placement enabled her to explore a part of Scotland that’s new to her, as well as teaching her a lot about identifying different plant and bumblebee species. 

I hope it’s evident that we are all really enjoying our placements with the Trust. A highlight for me is getting to reconnect with science after some time of having my work and education more focused on humanities. Connecting to nature through work has been hugely positive for me, I find joy in all the new things I am learning about bumblebees. I am working with a great team of people and being able to learn from them makes me exited to come into work every day. Heather tells me, “Being able to do something a bit different is always valuable and has brought me extra confidence in my abilities to conduct surveys and work alone out in the field safely. The best part was finally seeing a Great Yellow bumblebee which I saw 14 of in one day!!” Emma adds, “I’m really enjoying my experience with the Trust, everyone is so welcoming and it’s a lovely community to be a part of!” Aydan shares that the entire year has been invaluable, but if he had to pinpoint one highlight, “It would be the incredible and dedicated community I had the privilege to work with, all united by our shared goal of protecting and conserving bumblebees. I can’t remember a day at work when I wasn’t smiling.”

As I still have some time before the end of my traineeship, I was curious to ask my fellow trainees what possibilities their roles have opened to them for the future. Aydan answers that his traineeship has given him the skill set to apply and follow a career in ecology and the conservation sector. There’s the possibility of continuing his employment with the Trust, but he also feels confident in finding work with other charity NGOs within the UK. Similarly, Heather tells me “I’m nearing the end of my placement and although there’s nothing new on the horizon yet, I’m confident this training will bring new opportunities for me in the future, and I can’t wait!”

Being able to do a traineeship with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust is something I am very fortunate to be able to experience. I have found that even though we have a staff team that spreads from the Outer Hebrides to Cornwall, everyone – across levels and different teams – has readily welcomed me. Though I don’t currently know what I’ll end up doing when my traineeship ends, I will be glad to have spent this time as part of the team here, working towards conserving bumblebees.