Land & Farm Advice Assistant

Are you passionate about promoting sustainable farming practices and conserving our wonderful wildlife? Do you thrive on building relationships and driving positive change within communities? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you to make a difference as our Land & Farm Advice Assistant at the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT)’s consultancy, Future Nature Land & Farm Advice Service.

What you’ll be doing:

This is a developmental role that provides support and training in both conservation and farming, ensuring you become a confident and skilled environmental farm and land advisor.

As the Land & Farm Advice Assistant you'll play a crucial role in developing a high-quality service for farmers and landowners across the three counties, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxon. You'll support the delivery of farm plans and natural asset reviews, conduct ecological surveys, organise engaging events, and support multiple projects and a range of clients.

Your key responsibilities will be to:

• Assist in developing and delivering farm plans and natural asset reviews tailored to clients' needs.
• Conduct ecological surveys to evaluate biodiversity and ecological health.
• Assist with marketing efforts and events to promote our services and engage with the farming community effectively
• Assist in developing and facilitating new farmer cluster groups to promote sustainable agricultural practices and conservation efforts.
• Assist with GIS mapping tasks to support land and farm advisory services.

Who we’re looking for

At BBOWT, we're dedicated to creating 'more nature everywhere'. As a leading conservation charity, we work tirelessly to protect and enhance biodiversity across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and Buckinghamshire. Now, we're seeking a dynamic individual to join our team and play a pivotal role in advancing our mission.

You’ll have:

• Farming background and/or basic understanding of conservation and farming principles.
• Some knowledge of ecology and/or interest in nature and wildlife
• Interest in environmental conservation and sustainable agriculture practices.
• Good communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Proactive and adaptable attitude with a willingness to learn.
• Basic knowledge of GIS mapping software (full training will be provided).
• Valid UK driving licence.

Salary: £25,700 - £26,631 per annum

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 37.5 hours per week. Flexibility in working pattern, in agreement with line manager

Based: Littlemore, Oxford. Hybrid working is available.

For all your hard work you can expect a great rewards package in return. In addition to being part of a friendly, skilled, and knowledgeable team, passionate about making a difference, when you work for us, you’ll also receive:

• Generous annual leave entitlement with paid birthday leave, wellbeing days and generous occupational sick pay
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and family-friendly policies
• Flexible working to achieve work-life balance
• Pension (salary exchange) with generous employer contribution
• Learning & Development Programme for all (SEED)
• Wellbeing initiatives including qualified Mental Health First Aiders across BBOWT, access to our Employee Assistance Programme, providing you with immediate and confidential help for any work, health or life matters; 3x life assurance, online GP access and a YuLife benefit package with free will writing, a variety of discounts and ability to claim vouchers to use in a wide range of stores when you redeem YuPoints earned by being active or meditation sessions.
• Salary sacrifice Cycle scheme & Electric Vehicle scheme
• Membership to BBOWT’s, and The Wildlife Trusts’, Staff Network Groups for social interaction, peer support and personal development
   

How to apply

For full details, please read the job description and T&Cs below. To apply, please follow the application link.

The closing time and date for applications is 11.59pm on Monday 13^th May 2024.  Interviews will take place either 23^rd or 24^th May 2024.

BBOWT values diversity and inclusion and the benefits this brings. We want every candidate to have the best chance of success as part of this process. In order to do this, we know that some candidates will need reasonable adjustments. Contact us on recruitment@bbowt.org.uk if there are any reasonable adjustments we can provide during the recruitment process, including completing your application.

When applying for the role you can expect to answer a few questions online relating to the skills required and what you would be doing in the role. Your responses will be anonymised, randomised, and scored by a panel of reviewers.

We don't use an application form, or CVs - your answers to our situational based questions will be scored against a review guide and scores from these will decide which candidates go through to the interview stage.  See here to find out why we do this.

Whilst we appreciate ChatGPT and other AI platforms can answer these questions, we know what they have to say (and generally the answer they generate isn't great). We want to hear your perspective written in your own words. If it is clear that any of your answers are not your own work, we reserve the right to reject your application on that basis. 

You’ll also be asked for information about your background, anything you feel comfortable sharing will be anonymised and will not be shared as part of the selection process, it will only be used to help us understand how we are performing against our equal opportunities metrics. All candidates will receive feedback on their application.

We want our people to be as diverse as nature, so we particularly encourage applications from people who are underserved within the communities in which we operate. This includes people from visible ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities (including those who are neurodivergent), the LGBTQ+ community, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and younger people. We are committed to creating an organisation that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities.