A wild week of work experience

Since July is one of our busiest months in the year, it provides a great opportunity for school students to come and gain valuable work experience with us at the centre. Over the last few weeks, we have been fortunate to have four work experience students with us who have helped out with our daily data recording and tasks, as well as coming out on teaching days and taking part in various activities around the centre grounds. Below they describe what they did during their time with us.

Julianne:
My week at Preston Montford has been a fantastic opportunity to confirm my interest in pursuing a career in zoology and conservation. One of my favourite experiences was recording the moths caught overnight in the skinner moth trap and it was interesting seeing the many different and impressive species, including Poplar Hawkmoths! Once identified, each moth was released into the vegetation where they could hide from predators. We also walked through the Preston Montford grounds to record butterfly populations and identify species in different habitats. Furthermore, we also went on a bird-spotting walk which I found really engaging due to my natural interest in birds and I enjoyed learning their calls to identify them. One of the more botanical tasks I helped with was willow coppicing. I learned about willow growth and how to maintain it in order to encourage growth.

Moth Identification - Poplar Hawkmoth

Jane:
I completed a week of work experience at Preston Montford where I helped to take daily records of the weather and send the data to the MET Office and also helped to set up the teaching equipment for the school groups that visited. Whilst completing a butterfly walk and doing some willow cutting, we also had a good laugh as it was really good fun. Doing all of the centre tasks with the education team has really opened my eyes to the conservation work they do behind the scenes; a lot of work goes into running the centre, but the staff are one big team which makes it an enjoyable place to work. To anyone who is thinking of a place to do your work experience, Preston Montford is one place I would definitely recommend. There is so much to help with, including teaching, grounds maintenance and wildlife identification.

Max:
My week has been very enjoyable and very informative; I chose to work at the field studies centre because I am currently taking geography for my GCSEs and I wanted to learn more about the subject to help with my understanding of the natural environment. I was very nervous when I first started, however the staff at Preston Montford made me feel very welcome and comfortable straight away! I got a detailed tour of the centre and it was fascinating to see how much goes on there. I enjoyed learning how to take weather readings, such as the amount of sunlight hours in a day and how much rainfall fell in the last 24 hours. I also got to have a go at moth trapping; I have never been too keen on moths but once I got to see them up close, I realised they weren’t so bad after all and are actually really varied. We managed to catch some really interesting species, such as hawk moths and peppered moths, which were my favourites because they have cool patterns on their wings. Taking part in the team meeting was also really useful to see how teams operate and how much planning goes into teaching to the centre. I have gained a lot of new knowledge about birds, butterflies and moths and conservation tasks, as well as about every day work life.

Conservation Task - coppicing willow

Georgie: 
If you’re interested in going into a career in the environment or you just love wildlife and being outdoors, I would definitely recommend Preston Montford FSC as a place to do work experience. My week at Preston Montford FSC involved a variety of tasks which allowed me to get hands on experience with surveying butterflies, bees and moths as well as helping out behind the scenes with office and laboratory work. There is also an opportunity to observe teaching skills of the tutors who teach a variety of topics including pond life identification and analysis, as well as river studies at Carding Mill Valley. Working at FSC Preston Montford reinforced my interest in wanting to work in the environment and enlightened me about the different paths I can take. One of my favourite moments has to be identifying the moths as I have never seen such a variety of species before! Thank you so much to all the staff at Preston Montford FSC who are so friendly and welcoming, I would definitely want to come back!

Looking for pond life

If you are interested in completing some work experience at Preston Montford, you can get in touch with us by email (enquiries.pm@field-studies-council.org) or phone 01743852040. It is a great chance to get some experience in a growing sector.