Work experience at the Zoo
Working for wildlife should be a career that’s accessible for all. With over 20,000 animals, staff working on everything from animal care to conservation, in our zoos, our library or out in the wild, ZSL is an incredible place to experience what it’s like working for the natural word.
We run a comprehensive work experience programme for year 10 to 12 students to experience life working at a zoological organisation. This is currently only offered to students from targeted schools in the London boroughs of Camden and Westminster, those who are members of our Education Access Scheme and through partnership organisations. As such we can't facilitate ad hoc requests for work experience.
Who do we run work experience for?
The goal of our work experience programme is to provide experience for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds who often lack these kinds or opportunities, as well as for demographics underrepresented in animal care and conservation. As such places are targeted at students who meet at least one of the following criteria:
- Students on Free School Meals
- Children in care or care-leavers
- First in the family to go to university
- Those with disabilities
- Ethnic minorities
- Refugees and asylum seekers
If you are an organisation who works with the groups outlined above and would like to discuss what might be possible for your young people, please get in touch our work experience team:
Find our more about careers at ZSL
Due our target audience and work with partner organisations, we are not able to facilitate ad hoc requests for work experience. We do however run regular career focused courses, conferences and events throughout the year. Take a look at the pages below to see whats coming up.
Don't miss our careers event!
FREE Online Animal Careers Conference
Explore the variety of roles working with animals