Work Experience
In addition to taking in wildlife casualties we believe in education and work experience for a variety of young people is part of that.
The students who take advantage of these placements come from all sorts of institutions. Colleges and universities, schools, vet schools and training veterinary nurses will be making use of Oak and Furrows Wildlife Rescue Centre over the coming year.
These students make up part of our work force and in return for teaching them as much as we can about British wild animals and birds they provide us with another pair of hands.
In order to be able to care for any animal, you first need to know a little about their natural life, behaviour, feeding requirements etc., At O&F this is a vast area to deal with as there are so many different species passing through all the time and all need to be assessed very carefully on an individual basis.
Take housing for instance, accommodation for a swan is very different from accommodation for a woodpecker, or a mouse from a deer. A variety of diets are catered for and the way in which animals and birds feed has to be taken into consideration. Swans are fed in water, finches will hang off a string of millet, polecats will grab their food and run off with it, woodpeckers will lick out their food from holes in a piece of bark.
Not only are there large variations within the subjects of feeding and accommodation, but also handling techniques, protective clothing, how the casualty is likely to react in a given situation and how to identify problems all have to be addressed.
`On the job` training is a wonderful way to do it and that is how work experience works here. The students have to take their place within the team, are treated as a member of staff and are expected to behave accordingly. They are put through induction on their first day, this includes health and safety, what is expected from them and what they can expect from us. It is not a mopping the floor, making coffee situation, it is real `work` experience.
We have produced an induction pack for all these placement students containing all they need to know about us, health and safety and their work here.
Some of these students have a wildlife module in their college course and have to do an assignment based on their work experience; others just need a report or assessment from us. They can also work on key skills while they are with us.
During time spent at the centre on work experience they cover, rescue situations, transportation, handling, first aid, accommodation, feeding, hand rearing, rehabilitation, release, wildlife law, meeting the public, using the telephone and record keeping.
This other side to our work can be as rewarding as the animal care, to see these young people through their studies and achieving their goals.
