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Internships at Green & Away

Green & Away is able to offer a small number of internships for its 2011 season.

The placements will enable participants to learn at first hand the challenges of organising environmental events, see how the need for sustainability dovetails with economic pressures, and meet a wide variety of people from NGOs working for social and environmental change.

The Learning Experience

Green & Away operates Europe’s only outdoor conference centre – a venue held entirely under canvas. We build our centre every summer on a beautiful Worcestershire field and will host some six events in 2011, each lasting between an evening and several days.

While conventional conference centres are ready to host conferences all the time, at Green & Away each year we build the physical facilities we need – and it must be ready for when the first delegates arrive.

The project – a registered charity – runs entirely on volunteers, and interns will have the opportunity to experience how this novel venue comes together. We are seeking two interns for our organiser’s office, two for the kitchen, and two for our maintenance area. You will also have the opportunity to see at first hand how the many volunteers – some experienced, some novices – are set to work and trained. You will see how we liaise with the different organisations holding events with us, and how we give detailed inductions to the participants when they arrive.

During the build period you will learn a range of practical skills in your department, ranging from erecting marquees and yurts, installing plumbing, use of a wide range of tools, planning the site, and fitting our electricity powered by the sun and wind. There will also be opportunities to see how we decorate the site, as well as setting up and running our well-equipped field kitchen.

In addition to these practical skills you will learn management techniques essential to running teams of people and will see how the project changes its rhythm according to the weather – whether hot or cold, dry or wet. Green & Away lives as a tribe or community while it is operating, so you will also experience communal living and teamwork of a type rarely available elsewhere.

Once the centre is built, you will then switch to helping host the groups which are holding events with us. The user organisation arranges their programmes, while we run the site, and you will see at first hand how our centre allows the user groups to literally think differently while they are with us.

The training will be a mix of formal and informal. You will be attached to different teams responsible to seeing that particular jobs get done. This will be hands-on training, both practical and theoretical. We will also run workshop sessions where you can learn the thinking behind what we do. We are happy to dovetail the training to particular skills you want to learn.

In addition to the opportunity to learn about Green & Away and its work, our volunteers and trustees also have a wide range of other professional skills which they are willing to share. These include food, cooking and nutrition; finance and corporate social responsibility, executive mentoring; living in communities; company quality assessments; international development work; sustainable procurement; children’s education; and environmental building. We will run evening workshop sessions on these during the season – subject to availability.

Departments

Kitchen: We are seeking two interns to be attached to our kitchen. Our field kitchen feeds about 30 people during our set up and take down phases, and up to 200 when a conference is in progress. The food is all vegetarian, and mostly local and organic, and all cooked from raw ingredients. You will be involved in ordering stock from our wholesalers and local farmers, keeping control of it, co-ordinating a wide range of volunteers, playing a key role in the cooking, and setting up and maintaining the kitchen. The role would particularly suit those who already have some experience and interest in large scale vegetarian catering and who would like to expand their repertoire and skills.

Organisers Office: The two interns in the organiser’s office will work with our co-ordinator and be at the heart of the organising of the project. You will be dealing with the organisers of the conferences, many of the delegates, and our own volunteers. The role demands calmness, accuracy, reliability and initiative. It will suit those who wish to learn about project management, dealing with volunteers and clients, and events organising.

Maintenance Dept: The two interns will be dealing with all our equipment: our marquees, domes, yurts and tents (about 50 in total), the services – electricity, plumbing and toilets; and the many other pieces of equipment we have on the site. This is an opportunity to learn a variety of skills from the team who build and maintain our equipment, much of which is secondhand and recycled. It will suit those who have some practical skills and interest.

Time & Place

In 2011 we will need our interns to be on site from mid-June to mid-August (exact dates will be confirmed in Spring 2011). We do need our interns to be present for all of this time (with days off). We know from experience that if interns arrive late, they do not find the experience as enriching, and it causes difficulty for our project management and for the other interns.

We are located 3 miles from Worcester which has a main line rail station with buses which come to a few minutes walk of our site.

Accommodation & Facilities

Green & Away takes place under canvas. Ideally you will need a tent, but if you don’t have one we may be able to arrange one for you. All meals are provided (vegetarian, mostly organic and mostly local). The site has hot showers, clothes washing facilities and composting toilets. A licensed bar, comfortable sitting areas and arts and crafts facilities come later as and when we have built them. There is also wi-fi, and phone and laptop charging facilities.

Within walking distance is an organic eco café, an alternative therapy centre, a group of craft workshops, a care farming project, a large wholesale garden plant nursery, a greenwood worker, places to swim and a gastro-pub.

Other participants

Green & Away is run by a board of some 12 trustees, a number of whom are on site at any one time. In addition there are some 20 volunteers on site – some of whom are regulars, and others who are new to us. They vary in age from 16 to 70 and from all backgrounds.

The conferences attract between 50 and 140 people each. Some of the participants have been before, others are new to us. We have people who are experienced campers, and those who have never slept under canvas before.

Costs

Green & Away does not charge its volunteers or interns. We provide all meals, teas and coffees etc to everyone on site. Your only cost will be your travel and drinks and snacks from the bar.

Applications

Green & Away will be advertising from February 2011 for interns for its 2011 season. Please return to this site then for more details but it is anticipated that applications will need to consist of a CV and a short covering letter explaining why you would like to be an intern with Green & Away, which of the three departments you wish to be attached to, and which aspects of our work particularly appeal to you and what you have to offer. You are welcome to apply for a placement in more than one department.

Please send applications by email to Justin Moran: volco'at'greenandaway.org (replace 'at' with the @ symbol). Once we have seen your application we will arrange for an interview with shortlisted candidates. This will preferably be in London during April, or by phone conference if this is not possible.

Our closing date for applications will be March 31 2011; and we expect to make decisions by the middle of May.