Work Experience

Sadly, the group is not really set up to offer work experience over consequitive daily sessions.  Most of our field work, where students might be interested in gaining some knowledge or practical outdoor experience, is conducted at single events throughout the year, typically at weekends or evenings for most bat surveys.  We're not an organisation, like the local Wildlife Trust, who have employees and volunteers out in the field all year around; our group is essentially a small club consisting of a mixture of amateur and professional naturalist who share a common interest.  

Having said that, if you want to supplement your formal college work experience gained elsewhere with some additional hands-on volunteering, you would always be welcome to join us at any of our events.  The best place to find out what's going on is through our Facebook group.  Why not join us on a weekend survey looking for harvest mouse nests or dormouse nests?  Dormouse and bat work are areas we tend to specialise in and, as these species attract special protection, being familiar with them can help budding ecologists obtain their Natural England licences - a "must have" to help secure a career in mammal related environmental work these days!  In order for our group to comply with Safeguarding policies, any students or young person under the age of 18 wishing to take part in any of our work would need to be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Alternativley, here's a link to the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust: https://www.herefordshirewt.org/get-involved/volunteering/work-experience 

Their annual placements are filled very quickly, so book early.

Student Research Opportunities

HMG may be able to help if you are looking for:

• Opportunities to gain practical experience in ecological surveys as part of a course at school, college or university

• Advice or equipment for a specific local project you may be planning or be performing already

• An opportunity to get involved locally in one of our projects or general activities as a volunteer

A good starting point is to check our Events Calendar.  Here you will see what the group is currently involved in.  If you see anything there that is of interest, contact the leader of that event for further information.  An Archived Events Calendar is also available as a sub-heading within the Events Calendar section; here you can see what we have done in the past.

If you do decide to work with us, the only proviso is that you join HMG.  This is because all individuals directly involved with us have to be insured against injury, third party damage etc.  Unless you have your own insurance for this type of work, by joining HMG our group policy will provide the necessary cover.  There may be some occasions when you could attend an 'outside event' as an observer at your own risk, but these would be at the discretion of HMG.  See our Membership page for details of how to join HMG.

If you contact us, tell us a bit about yourself.  Try to answer the following questions; this will help us provide a tailored response.

• Where do you live (the town or city is fine)?

• What are studying and where?

• What species or types of projects/volunteering are you specifically interested in?

• Do you have your own transport?

• Note: If you are under 16, you may need to be accompanied by a responsible adult at our events

• Please supply a contact number if you are happy to be contacted by phone

For any other enquiries about how we might assist, use our general email address.