Engagement volunteer
ENGAGEMENT VOLUNTEER
Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday Vacancies
We want our visitors to have a great day out when they visit us; our Engagement Volunteers really make a difference by being welcoming and giving our visitors the opportunity to ask questions whilst having some amazing fun facts up their sleeve! You will provide information on animals, plants and key exhibits and be part of the public face of the Zoo.
Objective of volunteer role:
This is a wonderful opportunity to volunteer and spend time in a variety of different areas in the Zoo, chatting with our visitors and inspiring them about our animals. You’ll raise awareness of conservation and environmental issues and promote projects run by the Zoo and the Wild Planet Trust. You will also help to promote our talks and events and be available to help our visitors with questions relating to their visit. All helping to provide an enjoyable and educational visit to Paignton Zoo. You can also direct visitors to our online animal talk videos, available by scanning the QR code near enclosures.
Tasks:
Welcoming our visitors to the Zoo, helping them orientate themselves once they exit the main building. Talk to our visitors, impart information about the function of the Zoo as a conservation body, describe the role of species in a given ecosystem, explain the importance of those ecosystems and provide a fun and informative visitor experience. Draw attention to the unique adaptations or conservation issues for selected species. Explain the Zoo’s conservation projects. Where necessary, point out those animals that are hard to spot. Help our visitors interact appropriately with our animals, for e.g. not annoying, feeding or tapping on glass. Answer visitor questions such as: “How do we get to…?” “What time is…?” “Where can I…?” Volunteers may be asked to assist with the angers activities around site. You will be volunteering in all areas of the zoo which are open to the public. You’ll also provide extra support to our presenters at talks around the Zoo or interact with our visitors in animal / conservation related games.
Time:
Most volunteers offer a day per week and start from 10:00am; finishing by approx. 4:00pm. This is a flexible role so you can decide on your start and finish times between these times and provide cover in different areas around the zoo between the volunteers who are in on duty on each day to maximise interactions with visitors across the zoo. You may also volunteer on different days in the week.
Mentors / other support available:
Engagement Officer / Engagement Manager / Engagement Ranger / Campaigns and Programmes office manager. (In Campaigns and Programmes building)
PLEASE VISIT THE EDUCATION CENTRE and catch up with Engagement Staff during your duty.
The Engagement Staff are there to help support you with your volunteer role and will also be able to help answer the animal / plant / zoo-related questions you may have in order to be able to carry out your volunteer duty.
Skills required:
Friendly and confident, at ease speaking to visitors. Flexible, enjoy learning new things. Reliability and regular attendance. We’re not looking for experts, an interest in wildlife and conservation will be developed through training and written fact files. You will be kept up to date on any changes in the departments / enclosures / livestock that are relevant to the public, through catch-ups / meetings / weekly updates / Engagement Volunteer Diary (which we ask you to help keep updated for others to read and keep updated on news). You will need a good general knowledge of the Zoo in order to direct visitors and answer questions, which will, again, be developed through training and being out and about. Many smiles for our visitors!
Information packs and training will be provided along with training events periodically for the role. You will be provided with uniform but please wear comfortable shoes.
Any health and safety requirements:
With you needing to carry out full training for the role. There is a lot of walking and standing involved with this role.
The Engagement Officer / Manager or another member of the Engagement Team will talk you through the Risk Assessment / other health & Safety information for this role
Please note that all volunteers for this role must be aged 18 years or over
