New to Nature
New to Nature was an ambitious paid work placement programme that creates life-changing career opportunities for young people from underrepresented backgrounds, whilst contributing to wider efforts to build a more diverse and accessible environmental sector.
Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of its
£7 million legacy for communities and nature programme celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee and King’s Coronation, New to Nature supported nearly 100 young people from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds. These young people spent a year working across 82 charity and public sector, nature-focused organisations around the UK, including The Woodland Trust, RSPB, The Conservation Volunteers, and Grow UK.
The Youth Environmental Service was proud to help deliver this programme led by Groundwork UK and in partnership with The Prince’s Trust, Mission Diverse, and Disability Rights UK. Together, our collaboration earned a Charity Times Award nomination for Charity Collaboration of the Year.
Trainees were paid the Real Living Wage, and organisations received wage contributions of up to 100%, based on their size and income. This support helped a wide variety of nature-focused organisations take part. Alongside this, organisations also benefited from training and networking sessions to help them foster a more inclusive environment.
Trainees were welcomed in three cohorts throughout 2023. Alongside their roles, they had access to a training and development programme, a peer network, an individualised training budget, and career support from a Youth Employment Coach.
Keep scrolling to learn more about our role on the programme and our key learnings.
Our role
The Youth Environmental Service supported the delivery of New to Nature, specifically managing the learning and enrichment programme, and showcasing the impact of the programme to a wider audience to build long-term support.
For YES, this has been an incredible opportunity to test and refine a scalable model, exploring what works and building support for a long-term programme for young people across the sector and the country. We aim to use our newfound knowledge from this pilot to develop an approach we can build on for the programme we’re developing in Bristol.
‘Today’ - A poem by New to Nature Trainee, Emma
Emma spent a year working as a Conservation Trainee at the Scottish Seabird Centre, focusing on community engagement and practical conservation.
At the end of her placement she wrote a poem about her experience on the New to Nature programme.
of host organisations
would take part again
92%
of trainees now feel confident finding a job in their field of interest
90%
95%
of the first cohort of trainees secured ongoing employment
at the end of their placement.
What
we learnt
Our key takeaways:
Inclusive recruitment boosts confidence: Inclusive recruitment practices enable a diverse range of young people to feel more confident in applying. It also makes the process more personal and sets a positive tone for the year.
Peer support is powerful: The sense of being part of a trainee network, meeting in-person and supporting one another through the year was highly valuable, boosting trainee confidence and engagement in the programme.
Consider geographical limitations: Trainees being spread across the UK, with some in remote areas, made it difficult to bring everyone together regularly.
Don’t underestimate the positive wellbeing impacts: Trainees’ general wellbeing improved across all areas during the programme, showcasing the impact that paid meaningful work, nature connection and peer support can have on young people’s mental health.
Varied experiences: Employment coaches were valuable but varied in effectiveness. Future programmes would benefit from fewer coaches supporting more trainees to foster better connections.
Wider ranging financial support: Large organisations could take on more trainee costs, as the training and development support offered to organisations are attractive incentives beyond funding.
“It has been very helpful to have a network of other trainees to connect with and provide peer support. It’s great to have others who are going through the exact same thing and who are also ‘new to nature’.”
– Trainee
Looking ahead
Off the back of New to Nature, we’re using our learnings to refine our approach for our Bristol programme that we’re developing to deliver in 2025.
Alongside Groundwork UK and our other delivery partners, we’re also hopeful that a second phase of New to Nature may be possible. Ideally happening over multiple years, we hope to use New to Nature as a template for how the nature sector welcomes diverse young talent.
We’ll also be using our learnings and success stories from the programme to support a growing body of evidence that there’s a need and an appetite for programmes like ours amongst young people and the environmental sector. We hope to use this evidence to build public and political support for a Youth Environmental Service.
Interested in developing your own version of this programme?
Get in touch with us
