Every summer, Norfolk Wildlife Trust welcomes an enthusiastic cohort of students to join us for work experience. We then make what can only be described as an epic road-trip across the wonders of our wild environments, taking in the reedbeds at NWT Hickling Broad, the stone curlews of NWT Weeting Heath, the shingle-nesting birds at NWT Holme Dunes, and more.

This year, 30 students joined us across a fortnight to take on tasks including reed raking at Upton Fen, designing playful activities with the Wilder Learning team, and surveying orchids in the Brecks.

The experience made for an intensive, eclectic learning curve, connecting the young people with experts and enthusiasts across the Trust, and enabling them to experience wildlife in a multi-sensory, collaborative way.

Our work experience programme aims to reveal an honest and broad picture of jobs in conservation, including how to get them and how they're changing. But, more than that, it teaches these emerging leaders how to work amongst a team with care and sensitivity, how to think critically about our societal impact and, perhaps most importantly, to better understand the life on Earth that we all need to protect.

Here's a day-by-day summary, written by work experience student Eve:

Monday: visit to Fir Grove, woodland that used to be arable land. Highlights included seed collecting, ragwort pulling, plant identification, and seeing a kestrel and a red kite fighting over small mammals in a freshly cut field.

Tuesday: trip to NWT Cley Marshes and Holme Dunes. Species spotted included glossy ibis, a lapwing chick, oystercatcher and little tern. Lots of learning about beach nesting birds, including an inspirational story – after some eggs were washed out to sea, the mother bird rolled them back in to the nest from the shore, and two of the chicks still fledged!

Wednesday: trip to Weeting Heath. Spent some time clearing ragwort and bracken, conducted an orchid survey, and learned about the history of the land.

Thursday: visit to Hickling Broad, watching the grazing ponies and finding out about the wide range of species found at the reserve, before designing an activity aimed at primary school students to help them connect with nature. This was followed by a visit to NWT Ranworth Broad to watch the ospreys and great crested grebe.

Friday: visit to Upton Fen. After some raking and forking to maintain the reeds, students learned about the seed snail method. This was followed by discovering more about Mile Cross community allotment The Common Plot, a space to grow and share food.

Student points of view

Some of the students chatted to us about their work experience highlights and their future plans. Here are some snippets from our conversations:

What made you choose Norfolk Wildlife Trust for your work experience?

'I've always had an interest in wildlife ever since I was quite young. I've always liked to expand on it a bit more and learn about the different things around Norfolk and what people are doing to conserve the wildlife'.

'I was doing volunteering with NWT. I'm interested in a career in conservation or, if not, just carrying on volunteering into the future. I think it's good to know about what different job roles are in conservation.'

'I wanted to learn more about wildlife. Living in the city, I don't see much of it and it was nice to learn.'

What was your favourite part of the experience?

'We went on a boat trip around Ranworth and saw lots of different wildlife and birds. It was just a great experience.'

'We went to a lot of different nature reserves. They were all quite unique, which I liked since no one day was the same. I also liked seeing why we were doing the work that we were doing. When we were clearing the bracken and ragwort, we got to see what we were trying to achieve: creating new habitats for ground-nesting birds.'

'I think all the physical stuff is super fun. But I also quite like doing all the birdwatching and learning about different plant identification. It's all been really, really good though.'

What have you learned from your time here?

'I'm really interested in all the plant species, especially on day one with all the different wildflowers and stuff like that, and then all the birds. I've definitely really improved my bird ID this week.'

'I've learned a lot about different plants and animals, and how all the ecosystems interact with each other and how different plants have different micro ecosystems.'

'I learned that stinging nettles are actually quite important for biodiversity and not just a weed. I thought that was quite interesting, that you need to maintain that.'

Has your experience inspired you to get involved in conservation work or volunteering?

'I definitely think I will be doing volunteering sometime in the future. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do after school but I'm considering conservation work, ecology, stuff like that.'

'I'll definitely volunteer into adulthood... I want to do A-levels that could help me get a career in conservation. I've heard that they're considering doing an apprenticeship, so I might consider doing that after A-levels rather than going to university.'

'I'd like to do a degree in something to do with conservation or environmental science. And also continue to volunteer as much as I can, so I can hopefully get a job like this, like with NWT or another Wildlife Trust.'

We run two work experience weeks in July each year, for students aged 14-17. To find out more, visit our work experience page. We are expecting to announce details of our 2027 programme in November 2026.