Identification Trainers for the Future Traineeship

Role description: Over the next three years we will be offering fifteen 12-month long traineeship posts based within the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity. We are now looking to recruit the first five of these trainees, who will be starting with us in March 2015.

Do you regularly watch or record wildlife, either at home or as part of an organised recording scheme?
Are you keen to develop a career in the UK biodiversity sector? Do you want to develop your wildlife identification and surveying skills, and pass these skills onto others?
Do you want to share your passion for nature and work with like-minded people? If so, you may be exactly the candidate we are looking for.

Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Skills for the Future programme, the Natural History Museum, in partnership with the Field Studies Council and National Biodiversity Network Trust, is launching an exciting new traineeship opportunity. An intensive 12-month training programme of workshops and on the job learning will develop early career professionals into skilled trainers, equipped to address the decline in species identification skills in the UK biodiversity sector.

Anyone with a demonstrable passion for developing a career in wildlife recording, species identification and environmental education is welcome to apply. We do specify the following restrictions to applicants as the traineeship is intended for early career wildlife professionals:
Minimum qualifications: 3 A-levels or equivalent· Less than 6 months paid employment in the UK biodiversity, ecology or conservation sector.
· Not previously undertaken a similar traineeship in the UK biodiversity, ecology or conservation sector.

For more information on the Identification Trainers for the Future project please see www.nhm.ac.uk/idtrainers.

Bursary: £16,500 per annum (tax-exempt) plus benefits

Contract: 12-months full time

Closing date: Midnight on 12th December 2014

For a full details and to apply online please visit the Natural History Museum website: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/search-vacancies

Why not sign up to our ‘vacancy alerts’ service and follow us on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/natural-history-museum to hear of future opportunities.

Agencies please note – This role is being directly sourced by the NHM’s in-house recruitment team using pre-determined mediums only. Any communication received from agents regarding this role will be politely refused

Role competences: As part of the online application, you must provide answers to the following 5 questions (the remaining fields are to be left blank).

1. What are your particular areas of interest in UK wildlife? Do you have a specific species group that you are particularly interested in, or are you interested in the whole range of UK biodiversity?

2. Using a relevant example, describe your involvement in recording UK wildlife. This may be a private research project, a project undertaken in school, college or university, in a voluntary role you have been doing, taking part in a local or national recording scheme, or simply watching and recording the wildlife that comes to your garden, local park or nature reserve.

3. Species identification skills are declining in the UK. Why do you think it is important that we start to reverse this decline?

4. How do you think undertaking this traineeship will benefit you and your future career?

5. What qualities and strengths do you feel you will bring to this traineeship and to the Natural History Museum?

Online application process: Apply online before midnight on 12 December 2014 through the NHM website: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/search-vacancies. For internal applications please apply through the Internal NHM website

In the ‘Other Information’ section, please provide specific examples from your achievements, knowledge, skills or experience to illustrate your answers to each of the 5 application questions (section 3). Please use one field per application question, you can use a maximum of 140 words per field.

Your responses will be used to short-list applicantions and successful candidates will be invited to a selection day in January 2015.

Please note:
- You must fully complete your online application, CVs are not being accepted for this traineeship
- Partially completed applications with CVs attached will be rejected. - Individual cover letters and CVs submitted outside of the online application system will not be considered.

IMPORTANT: The ‘Other Information section’ the system runs on a 35 minute cycle and you will lose any unsaved information. To avoid this, save your application frequently or write your answers in a word document and paste them into the answer fields.

The attached ‘Role Specification’ provides further information on the traineeships and how to apply.

Please review your application fully before pressing ‘submit application’ as you will not be able to make any further amends after submitting, and any applications received which have not addressed ALL competences in full and/or the mandatory questions will be rejected.

Please also be aware that we are not able to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this role. If you do not have the right to work in the UK without a visa sponsored by NHM, then unfortunately you will not be eligible to apply for this vacancy.