Hello, my name is Kayleigh and I was a trainee with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, based in the idyllic Derwent Valley. Since leaving school over seven years ago, I had been in job positions that weren’t for me and had a tough time deciding what I wanted to do for a career. I’ve always had a love for the great outdoors but it wasn’t until last year, during the first lockdown, when I finally discovered that working in the conservation sector was something that I had been looking for after all that time.
I did some research on careers in this sector and that’s when I came across Working for Nature. I had no practical experience working in conservation; apart from some voluntary work with my local community and wildlife gardening. I was immediately interested in applying for the traineeship; as previous experience or qualifications weren’t needed and I thought this would be a great way to get my foot in the door within conservation.
I spent most of my days out at nature reserves gaining an insight into how the sites were managed, taking on practical work alongside volunteers and gaining plenty of experience using different tools that I had never used before. I learnt how to coppice trees, build boardwalks and post and wire fences, had a fantastic time at a dry stone walling residential and had many great wildlife encounters including seeing the peregrine falcon chicks being ringed with the Derbyshire Cathedral Peregrine Project.
Something I didn’t expect from the traineeship was being able to utilise my creativity.
With my passion for photography I was given the opportunity to assist Derbyshire Wildlife Trusts fantastic marketing team by telling stories via blog posts, social media takeovers, capturing the beaver release footage at Willington Wetlands and creating fun and vibrant video content for Team Wilder’s campaigns such as ‘Grow Don’t Mow’.
Whilst I enjoyed many aspects of practical outdoor conservation, my career aspirations changed towards the end of the traineeship and I decided that I wanted to make a career out of inspiring others to take action for wildlife and support the Wildlife Trusts. With just a week to go of my traineeship, I was lucky to have come across a position with Derbyshire Wildlife Trust which I didn’t even hesitate to apply for. I made it through to the interview stage and after a successful interview I was offered a role as the new Communications Assistant.
None of this would have happened if I didn’t apply to the traineeship.
Even if there hadn’t been an opportunity straight after the traineeship, it still proved to me that it is possible to make it into the environmental sector without a traditional degree route. My biggest goal before starting the traineeship was that I wanted to believe in myself after going through a tough time with depression. Working outdoors, surrounded by nature and learning new things had helped me build up my confidence and allowed me to start believing in myself again.
