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Apprenticeships and Interns

Details of apprenticeships and internships available within the countryside, conservation, ecology, environmental education, wildlife and animal management sectors.

What's the difference between an apprenticeship and a volunteer placement? CJS classifies a voluntary placement as one which is totally unpaid or has only out of pocket expenses. Whereas an apprenticeship has some remuneration in addition to a significant level of training leading to a recognised qualification. Occasionally there are a few unpaid internships.

Other useful pages:

Voluntary Opportunities Unpaid or expenses only posts, available on full, part time and odd day basis

Practical Workdays Details of organisations offering opportunities to help with a specific task on one or two days.

Advertise your apprenticeships - it's free for standard linage and there's a 50% discount on paid options.

Please remember to contact only the organisation or person detailed in the job advert and please mention that you saw the advert with CJS. Explanation of headings here.

Working with Rivers Intern - Fisheries Management Scotland in conjunction with Regional Fisheries Trusts

The Working with Rivers intern will support the hosting Fisheries Trusts to protect and restore Scotland’s freshwater species and habitats.

Fisheries Trusts work to promote conservation and evidence-based management of fisheries, undertake a wide range of environmental monitoring and improvement works, and work to raise awareness and educate the public about the aquatic environment.

The 7 Trusts that will be hosting interns are: Tay Foundation; Deveron, Bogie and Isla Rivers Charitable Trust; Spey Foundation; Findhorn, Nairn and Lossie Rivers Trust; Loch Lomond Fisheries Trust; Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries Trust; Wester Ross Fisheries Trust

Closing Date: 19/03/2026
Location: Scotland
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 06/03/2026

Trainee Gardener - Historic & Botanic Garden Training Programme - English Heritage

Location: Various garden locations around the UK

Salary: £12.71 per hour

Job type: Fixed-Term Contract

Applications are now open for the Historic and Botanic Garden Training Programme (HBGTP).

The HBGTP is managed by English Heritage and provides a truly exceptional opportunity for passionate and committed gardeners to develop their career in horticulture.

Trainees are paid to work full-time, as a trainee gardener, in a prestigious UK botanic or historic garden. Placements are for 12 months and start in September each year.

Closing Date: 22/03/2026
Location: Nationwide
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 02/03/2026

Trainee Forest Nursery Manager - Prees Heath Forest Nurseries

Salary: Depending on experience

We are a well-established forest nursery located near Whitchurch in North Shropshire, producing a wide range of trees and shrubs for the forestry and amenity markets. We are seeking a motivated and enthusiastic individual to train for the position of Nursery Manager. This role includes a structured two- to three-year training programme, after which the successful candidate will be offered a full-time position as Nursery Manager.

Delete Date: 07/04/2026
Location: Whitchurch, North Shropshire
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Edibles and Productive Horticulture - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Harlow Carr
Throughout this placement you will work within the Edibles Team in the Kitchen Garden and Nursery to gain knowledge, skills and training in growing edible crops within the Kitchen Garden and in a work-based context to prepare you for professional life in horticulture. As part of the team, you will learn about succession planning, sowing and planting while using a wide variety of growing techniques, along with maintenance tasks to produce commonly grown vegetables as well as more unusual varieties all year round. You will also gain glasshouse experience by helping to propagate plants for the kitchen garden.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Harlow Carr
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Nursery and Propagation - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Harlow Carr
This is your opportunity to learn and develop a variety of propagation skills throughout the placement year including techniques such as seed sowing, taking cuttings, air-layering, potting-up and caring for tender exotics over the winter. You will also learn how a nursery works in a large public garden from plant reception to the management of plants under glass using Integrated Pest Management (IPM), shade tunnels and outdoors.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Harlow Carr
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Ornamental Horticulture - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Bridgewater
The placement at RHS Garden Bridgewater provides the opportunity to spend a full year immersed with our Ornamental Teams (including Woodland, Chinese Streamside, Meadows and Turf and Paradise), studying a specific group of plants, garden practice or style whilst completing a Level 3 Award. You will gain knowledge, skills, training and experience in your specialism, in a work-based context, to prepare you for professional life in the industry.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Bridgewater
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Wellbeing & Communities - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Bridgewater
The Wellbeing and Communities Professional Work Placement (PWP) candidate will be involved in all aspects of therapeutic and community gardening practiced at RHS Bridgewater. The focus of this role work alongside our Horticultural Therapist and Community Grow gardener, assisting in the planning of person-centred horticulture-based activities at Bridgewater, and work with the team and volunteers to deliver those sessions. In addition, the role will spend some time working with the Outreach Team working with communities and schools across Greater Manchester.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Bridgewater
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Edibles and Productive Horticulture - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Bridgewater
The placement provides the opportunity to spend a full year immersed in the Edibles and Productive Horticulture Team, studying a specific group of plants, garden practice or style whilst completing a Level 3 Award. You will gain knowledge, experience, skills and training in your specialism, in a work-based context, to prepare you for professional life in the industry. Throughout this placement you will gain knowledge, experiences, skills and training in Edibles and Productive Horticulture in the work-based context to prepare you for professional life in this sector.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Bridgewater
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Edibles and Productive Horticulture - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Rosemoor
You will work alongside the small specialist edibles team at Rosemoor. You will shadow and learn from the team across a broad spectrum of food production areas and techniques, enabling you to see a full growing year in the world of edibles at Rosemoor, as well as having opportunities to work with colleagues across the RHS.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Rosemoor
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Ornamental Horticulture - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Rosemoor
Our Professional Work Placement programme is a one-year paid work experience placement for horticulturists who wish to specialise. This placement covers all aspects of Ornamental Horticulture across the garden, from stock production in the nursery through to enhancing and maintaining the spectacular seasonal planting for the benefit of our visitors.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Rosemoor
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Ornamental Horticulture - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Hyde Hall
This placement covers all aspects of Ornamental Horticulture and allows you to learn seasonal skills and techniques to enhance and maintain our spectacular ornamental plantings, from our formal Herbaceous Border to our naturalistic plantings on Clover Hill, for the benefit of our visitors.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Hyde Hall
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Edibles Gardening and Productive Horticulture - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Hyde Hall
This Edibles Gardening and Production Horticulture placement will give you a fantastic opportunity to develop your skills in growing, cultivating, maintaining and harvesting a wide range of exciting crops including both the traditional and unusual, as well as those grown under glass. You will also learn about annual bed plans, crop rotations and planning for succession.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Hyde Hall
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Alpine and Rock Garden - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum.
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota).
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Wisley
Speciality focus: To develop and maintain speciality Alpine and Rock Garden plants and associated plant collections located within our historic Rock Garden and Alpine Display Houses. The placement at Wisley provides the opportunity to spend a full year immersed within the Alpine and Rock Garden Team, studying this specialist group of plants and garden practices whilst completing a Level 3 Award. You will gain knowledge, skills, training and experience in your garden area, in a work-based context, to prepare you for professional life in the industry.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Wisley
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Propagation and Plant Trials - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum
Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota)
Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)
Location: RHS Garden Wisley
Our Professional Work Placement programme is a one-year paid work experience placement for horticulturists who wish to specialise. In the Plant Trials Team you will develop and maintain specialist plant trials in the garden, while in the Nursery and Propagation Team you will learn skills to propagate, grow on, identify and monitor pests and disease and maintain the wide range of plants that we produce for the gardens here at Wisley. You will work in each of these teams at different times of year.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Wisley
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Ornamental Horticulture - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum

Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota).

Start Date: September 2026. One year (fixed term)

Location: RHS Garden Wisley

The placement at Wisley provides the opportunity to spend a full year immersed within one of the four Ornamental Teams, studying a specific group of plants, garden practice or style whilst completing a Level 3 Award. You will gain knowledge, skills, training and experience in your specialism, in a work-based context, to prepare you for professional life in the industry. Speciality focus: To develop and maintain specialist Ornamental areas across the garden. You will work for a year in one of the following teams: Woodland, Formal, Welcome and Riverside or Herbaceous.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Wisley
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026

Professional Work Placement (PWP) in Alpines - Royal Horticultural Society

Salary: £23,810 per annum

Hours of work: Full time (37.5 hours a week on a rota).

Start Date: September 2026 One year (fixed term)

Location: RHS Garden Harlow Carr

Our Professional Work Placement programme is a one-year paid work experience placement for horticulturists who wish to specialise. The placement provides the opportunity to spend a full year immersed in a particular garden department studying a specific group of plants, garden practice or style whilst completing a Level 3 Award. Speciality focus Develop and maintain specialist Alpine plants and associated plant collections.

Closing Date: 02/04/2026
Location: RHS Garden Harlow Carr
Level: Apprentice/Intern
Posted: 24/02/2026