Creating access to employment in the environment sector

By Alex Rogers, Director of People & Culture at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust

Group of people posing around a wooden planter — Trainees at a knowledge share workshop celebrating the planter they have built together to be used in outdoor spaces (Photo by Flavia Ojok, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust)

We face a green jobs shortage, and these shortages and skills gaps are putting nature recovery initiatives and development at serious risk of delays and, at times, halting the work. This has been attributed to the fact we’ve not built a robust and agile sector for the society we have, we’ve failed to leverage diversity and build inclusivity within the profession, a profession that people from all backgrounds want to be a part of.

As an organisation, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust strives to be inclusive, ambitious, and innovative and has invested in people, culture, and early talent to create solutions to some of the problems the sector currently faces.

Our approach

We know that through diversity of thought comes unique, innovative, and imaginative solutions that can support us to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis. We also know that good wellbeing is paramount in supporting people to be their best as well as providing positive impacts on society.

We looked at our diversity data and could see we weren’t representative of our communities, and we made clear commitments to improve. We also want to acknowledge the impact that work has on our lives and have made clear commitments to support wellbeing and flexibility at work.

Actions we’ve taken so far:

Invested in a lead role to develop our Early Talent & Inclusion work.
Accredited through the Real Living Wage Foundation; we pay all our employees the Real Living Wage and are an accredited Living Hours employer too. This commitment includes all our trainees who have employment contracts, with the same terms and conditions as other employees.
Created an Early Talent programme that supports the skills needed for the future. We’ve created traineeships in project management, green finance, landscape architecture and marketing as well as roles focussed on practical management and ecology. These roles gain a rounded experience with mentoring support and opportunities for development outside the organisation providing the essential skills to obtain future employment.
Reduced barriers to accessing employment. Our trainee and apprenticeship schemes are open to all, whether a career starter or changer. We have worked hard to scrutinise all role descriptions to ensure our language is inclusive, as non-gendered as possible and only asks for the criteria that are essential. Trainee roles specifically are learning roles and what’s important to us are the skills and values the trainee will bring to our organisation.
Invested in flexible ways of working and wellbeing; adopting a 9-day fortnight working pattern and implementing flexible hybrid working.

Group of people showing off a wooden planter they have built — Trainees at a knowledge share workshop showcasing the planter they have built together to be used in outdoor spaces (Photo by Flavia Ojok, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust)

The Impact we’ve seen:

Our Early Talent programme started small and very quickly it’s grown. To date we have welcomed 36 paid trainees or apprentices, with more planned. We see these roles as central to creating innovation, agility and change within our organisation and the sector, giving people the confidence and skills to make a difference. The programme has already made a big impact, with 80% of people progressing into further employment within the sector or into further/higher education on courses related to the sector and 20% have progressed into employment in a field outside the sector however will continue to be citizen scientists.

We’ve seen a positive impact on our diversity data, but we still need to do much more to connect and inspire new audiences around green jobs. As an organisation we will focus our efforts to improve ethnic diversity and be more representative of our communities.

The impact of our work on our culture can be seen through our latest engagement survey, 83% of employees said they felt that Derbyshire Wildlife Trust is an inclusive place to work and 83% said they felt that Derbyshire Wildlife Trust lives its Values, compared with a score of 62% and 55% in 2021.

What’s next?

Group of people around a pond leaning over and looking in — Trainees searching for freshwater plants and animals in a pond (Photo by Flavia Ojok, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust)

We’ll continue with the momentum of our Early Talent programme, it’s motivating and inspiring to see so many enthused and creative people supporting natures recovery. We’ll continue to develop, embrace, and champion an innovative and collaborative culture with equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging at its heart.

We hope to see and to support other organisations breaking down barriers to accessing employment in the sector, so incredible talent can find opportunities and make a difference for nature.

We couldn’t have achieved what we have without the support of our board of trustees, staff team and funders.

Comments from some past trainees:

“It was a good traineeship, I felt just as valued as every other member of staff, everyone was lovely which really helped my anxiety, there were ample opportunities to learn and grow and I love how personal development was a priority within the Trust for all staff.”

“I think it is huge for the conservation sector to finally have on the job training opportunities like this, I hope that DWT and other Trusts will continue to offer more and more paid traineeships. I would never have been able to get this level of training and skills without this opportunity”

“The opportunity to expand my knowledge in a completely new sector that prior to the placement was something I would not have been able to do.”