Work experience opportunities

Secret World Wildlife Rescue offers work experience placements for students aged 18 years old and above on Animal Management and Conservation related courses. We can also arrange work placements for students looking to work with our other departments including fundraising, business administration, retail or finance.

These placements are usually organised as a ‘block’ where students attend for 3 or more weeks.  Block placements are available from April to September. We are looking to offer a limited number of Day Release placements for the 2022-2023 Academic year. 

For University students completing a voluntary placement year (6, 9, or 12 months) as part of their degree please contact volunteer@secretworld.org to discuss options. Please note we are not able to provide accommodation or cover food costs and these placements are on a voluntary basis.

Veterinary students – Please note we are only able to provide Animal Husbandry placements and not EMS placements as we do not have a Veterinarian working on site with us.

Work Experience placements with Animal care enable students to gain experience and increase their knowledge of the following areas:

• Animal Handling – From small birds and hedgehogs to large water birds such as swans, birds of prey and mammals including foxes and badgers. This can be at the centre or as part of a rescue using specialised equipment.
• Biosecurity and hygiene – how to use the appropriate disinfectants and what PPE to wear to reduce the risk of zoonotic disease transmission. 
• Food preparation and feeding – Every April through to September we have hundreds of baby birds admitted to the centre that need hand feeding or tube feeding as well as young mammals who can require syringe or bottle feeding (orphan rearing training required). Volunteers also assist with food preparation for adult birds and mammals too.
• Enrichment – See how enclosures are designed for different species in order to create an environment suited to a particular species and encourage natural behaviours.

We rely greatly on volunteers and student, especially from April to September when admissions reach over 75 a day.  Therefore, we require that students are reliable and punctual and attend all shifts that they have committed too.  In cases of absences due to illness or other reasons, students must notify us as soon as is practically possible to enable us to arrange cover.

Work experience placements working alongside our fundraising, finance or charity shop team will help students gain experience and confidence in a variety of areas as well as learning about the day to day running of a Charity. Students can learn or improve on a number of transferrable skills including communication, filing/paper management, IT, customer service and research. 

Please fill out the application form below and email volunteer@secretworld.org or ring 01278 783250 if you have any questions.