Trainee Assistant Training Officer in Southampton

Full Time – 35 Hours per Week

Salary: £24,479 gross per annum

Fixed Term Contract for 12 Months

Location: Swanwick, Hampshire, SO31 7AY with hybrid working available

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust is shaping a wilder future for our counties – protecting special places, restoring habitats and inspiring people to act for nature. As part of the UK's fastest-growing movement for nature's recovery, we lead with passion, integrity and bold thinking. Join a team where your work has purpose, your ideas matter, and you can help create lasting change for wildlife and people.

This role offers the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in outdoor education and training, supporting the delivery of accredited courses such as Forest School Level 2 and Level 3, INSET training for schools, and Wild Beach courses. Working closely with our experienced training team, you will play a key role in the planning, coordination, and delivery of high-quality training programs that inspire and empower participants to connect with nature. This role sits within the Advocacy and Engagement team and will work with others in the team and across the Trust to help build Team Wilder as a key strand of the Trust's strategy.

What You'll Be Doing

• Supporting the delivery of accredited training programmes, including Forest School Levels 2 & 3, INSET and Wild Beach courses.
• Assisting trainers with course preparation, site setup and hands-on learning activities.
• Providing excellent customer service, supporting participants with bookings, queries and their learning journey.
• Helping coordinate training logistics, including resources, scheduling and communications.
• Ensuring training is delivered in line with health & safety, safeguarding and risk assessments.
• Contributing to course improvement by gathering feedback and engaging in your own professional development.

About You

You are an enthusiastic and reliable outdoor educator with a growing foundation in Forest School or Wild Beach delivery and experience working with schools or community groups. You bring a sound understanding of health and safety and safeguarding, have the ability to communicate clearly and confidently, and enjoy working both as part of a close-knit, fast-paced team and independently using your own initiative.

With a genuine passion for wildlife conservation and outdoor learning, you are keen to develop your skills, work outdoors in all weather, and engage adults and children in an inclusive, friendly, and professional way. You share the Trust's values, uphold high standards of integrity, and are motivated to support learning and conservation across a range of sites.

Wild About Inclusion

As an inclusive employer we recognise that our workforce needs to better reflect the communities in which we live and work. We encourage applications from all sections of the community, particularly those underrepresented within our sector, including people from black, Asian, minority Ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities. We are committed to creating a Movement that recognises and truly values individual differences and identities.

Disability Confident. We are proudly a Disability Confident Committed employer. The scheme is helping us recruit and retain great people to meet our workforce needs. As a member of the scheme, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum criteria for this position will be offered an interview. You can request adjustments including accessible formats of this vacancy by contacting us.

To be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme you must:

• Identify as being disabled which under the Equality Act 2010 means a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial*, long term** adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day to day activities; or a long-term health condition; and;
• (*Substantial is more than minor or trivial **Long-term means 12 months or more)
• Set out how you meet all the minimum qualifying criteria set out in the person specification for the post at the application and testing stages. This is a requirement for all candidates, not just those applying under the scheme.

We are happy to discuss the possibilities of hybrid and flexible working. This role will be based at our office in Swanwick, however, we are happy to accommodate a hybrid working routine, and discuss a pattern of work which mutually suits the candidate and the Trust. Traditionally, office hours are Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm with an hour lunch break. We value spending time working in-person to develop strong connections with each other and with our mission, so we although we offer hybrid working, we do not offer full home working within our roles.

We offer a wide range of benefits including a competitive salary, generous annual leave allowance, a contributory pension scheme, life assurance, learning and development support, 24-hour access to our employee assistance programme, discounted staff travel with our corporate partners Wightlink (subject to T&Cs), free parking at our sites and more.

Closing date: 23 February 2026

Interviews: 11 March 2026

To apply for the role, please click on the 'Apply Now' button at the top of the page. In the 'supporting information' section, you'll need to demonstrate, with detailed examples, how you meet the job requirements using the Job Description and Person Specification below. Please note that we may occasionally close vacancies early when we have received enough applications that meet the required criteria.

Please do not use artificial intelligence tools to assist you to complete the application form. We may not accept applications that have been completed utilising AI tools. If you would usually use tools such as these to assist you in filling in a form, please contact us to discuss this further and understand other options.