Widening Participation at ZSL – The Careers and Youth Programme

In 2020 The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) launched its diversity and inclusion action plans, with ‘diversity in the workforce’ and ‘raising awareness and education’ as two key themes. The Community and Learning team re-evaluated our programmes to support these objectives and developed The Careers and Youth Programme in response, identifying the following barriers to accessing the environmental sector:

• Lack of awareness of the diversity of possible careers working with wildlife, with possibilities for all backgrounds/academic level.
• Lack of opportunities to gain relevant experience and develop employability skills, with financial barriers being common to these opportunities.
• Lack of clear pathways into careers at ZSL/the wider sector.

The programme operates across London and Whipsnade Zoos and consists of a variety of activities, courses and events aimed at those groups currently underrepresented in animal care and conservation – identified as ethnic minorities, those with disabilities and those from low-income households. All aspects work towards the overarching objectives, which are to:

• Inform students with an understanding of ZSL and the role of modern zoos in wildlife conservation.
• Inspire students to pursue zoological careers by providing them with experience of the breadth of related careers possible.
• Empower students with the feeling that a career in zoology is for them, giving them the confidence and skills to pursue the career of their choice.
• Develop work-based skills (e.g., team building, organisation, delegation, presenting)
• Develop social, emotional and mental health skills plus confidence in the workplace.

The programme has been designed to provide an applicable course/event for any young person aged 11-25 (in full time education or not) and works at three levels:

1. Engaging students with the diversity of careers
2. Developing employability skills
3. Building clear career pathways

Examples of events/courses at each level can be seen in the figure below.

Level 3 is where much of the future work will focus, as we work to develop bridges into paid positions. Levels work independently to each other, but opportunities at the next level are signposted, helping to create pathways of engagement.

Between 1st September 2021 and 31st August 2022, 1,250 young people engaged in 554.37 hours of delivery. Engagement spanned 10mins (careers fairs) to 78 hours (work experience) for an average of 11 hrs (8.8hrs excluding Work Experience). This was split evenly across Engagement Activities and Employability Courses.

Post-course evaluation shows students have a deeper understanding of the role of zoos in conservation, an increased interest in pursuing an animal related career, and knowledge on how to reach their dream role. As we are in the early stages of the programme these are interim outcomes; the true influence will be measurable in future follow-up evaluation on student progression, and whether they report their ZSL experiences to have contributed on this journey.

Equal Opportunities Monitoring analysis shows that our existing approach is successful for reaching:

• Free School Meals students
• First in the family to go to university
• Those from areas of high deprivation
• NEET 

Though we need to work harder to reach:

• In care and care leavers
• Those with disabilities
• Ethnic minorities
• Refugees and asylum seekers. 

In the meantime, we are already seeing some direct successes. Four past students have taken on employment with ZSL, seven now volunteer at our Zoos and a final student used their experiences to gain employment at another conservation charity in London.