Forest Operations & Land Management Paid Placement

Natural Resources Wales; Bangor; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

An environmental organization in the United Kingdom is offering a paid placement in forestry or land management starting in September 2026. This opportunity is designed for undergraduate students and requires a mid-year placement. Candidates will assist with monitoring and data collection, support delivery of work plans, and gain valuable experience in various land management practices. Applicants must possess strong communication skills, good ICT skills, and a valid UK driving license, along with a passion for environmental work.

Benefits

28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days

Civil Service Pension Scheme

Commitment to professional development

Health and wellbeing benefits

Qualifications

• Currently undertaking an undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline requiring a mid-year placement.
• Good understanding of sustainable forest management.
• Full UK driving licence.

Responsibilities

• Support delivery of work plans.
• Assist with monitoring survey work and data collection.
• Maintain records and information in line with regulations.
• Participate in team meetings and external meetings.
• Interact with peers in NRW to understand team delivery.
• Undertake health and safety duties as required.

Skills

Good communication and interpersonal skills

Good ICT skills

Ability to build effective working relationships

Enthusiasm and passion for forestry and land management

Education

Undergraduate degree in forestry or land management

Job description

The role

We are proud to announce that NRW will be hosting two paid placement opportunities starting in September 2026. These are specifically for students undertaking a mid-year placement whilst participating in an environmental and sustainability related course, such as forestry or forest management, woodland management and conservation, environmental science, environmental management, geography, or a related subject from a higher educational institution.

If successful, you could be appointed to either of the regions. As a result, you could end up working in north east Wales which covers the beautiful Eryri National Park, or in mid Wales which covers from Aberystwyth to Abergavenny across the Cambrian Mountains and Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.

Regardless which team you join, this opportunity provides the ability to work alongside our professional teams responsible for managing the Welsh Government Woodland Estate and National Nature Reserves. This placement will expose you to a diverse range of opportunities and land management practices. This could range from harvesting and establishment operations, legal land liability inspections through to ancient monument restoration or specific species management on a nature reserve.

We are looking for someone with enthusiasm and passion for forestry and land management who can demonstrate drive to learn and deliver their work whilst working alongside our teams and wider customers and contractors.

About us

We have been running our paid placement programme in Forest Operations and Land Management since 2020. It is something we're extremely proud of. We've hosted students from across the UK with various background and from numerous educational institutions. They have then gone back to complete their studies and are now working across the sector.

This programme will sit you within one of our Land Management and Forest Operational teams. The year will give you the opportunity to develop your skills and knowledge whilst gaining both valuable exposure to our operations, but more importantly giving you experiences you can take forward to kick start your career in forestry or land management. Throughout your year, you'll shadow and be mentored by experienced staff, put through training and development and given opportunities to lead certain projects and go out with other teams across NRW.

What you will do

Support delivery of work plans, created by the team, which contributes towards the delivery of business plans.

Assist with monitoring survey work and data collection.

Maintain records and information in line with regulations / legislation and agreed standards.

Participate in team meetings.

Participate in external meetings with other members of the team.

Interact with peers in NRW to understand and team delivery.

Contribute towards the teams delegated responsibility for delivery of work programmes.

Other work as directed by the line manager.

Undertake health and safety duties and responsibilities appropriate to the post

Be committed to Natural Resources Wales Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy , together with an understanding of how it operates within the responsibilities of the post

Be committed to your own development through the effective use of your personal development plan (known as Sgwrs).

Any other reasonable duties requested commensurate with the grade of this role.

Required to take part in incident response activities

Your qualifications, experience, knowledge and skills

Applications to this role will be assessed based on the following criteria both at shortlisting and interview. In your job application please demonstrate, using the STAR method, how you meet the requirements outlined below.

Currently undertaking an undergraduate degree in either a forestry or land management discipline from a higher education institution. Your undergraduate degree must require a mid-year placement (essential).

A good understanding of working in land and forestry management disciplines, including sustainable forest management.

Good communication and inter-personal skills with a customer focus. Ability to build effective working relationship with colleagues and partners.

Good ICT skills (essential).

Full UK driving licence (essential).

Welsh Language Level requirements :

Essential :

Please note

if you do not meet the level A1 requirement i.e., ability to understand basic phrases and ability to pronounce Welsh names correctly, then NRW offers a variety of learning options and staff support to help you meet these minimal requirements during the course of your employment with us.

Benefits of working for us

agile and flexible working

Civil Service Pension Scheme offering employer contributions of 28.97%

28 days annual leave, rising to 33 days

generous leave entitlements for all your life needs

commitment to professional development

health and wellbeing benefits and support

weekly wellbeing hour to use as you choose

See full details for all the employee benefits you will receive.

Please keep reading

If you think you have what it takes to do this role, but don't necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch and we will be happy to discuss the role with you in more detail.

We're passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from under-represented communities. We embrace equality of opportunity irrespective of disability, neurodivergence, ethnic origin,colour, nationality, gender expression and gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation,culture,or religion. We put the principles of human rights, equality, fairness, dignity and respect at the heart of our values .

We are committed to equal opportunities and we guarantee interviews for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

We want to attract and retain talented and highly skilled staff, so we make sure that our pay scales remain competitive. We advertise the full pay scale on our job descriptions. Appointed candidates start at the first point of the pay scale and annual increments are paid each year.

We want our staff to grow professionally and personally. From leadership development to access to further and higher education courses, our staff have opportunities to expand their knowledge on variety of topics, stay current in their field and continue to learn as their career progresses.

We are a bilingual organisation which complies with the Welsh Language Standards . Welsh language skills are considered an asset to NRW and we encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills.