Café Volunteer (St Aidan's)

We depend on volunteers to help us to run our Little Owl Café. The café is a vital part of our site and by volunteering here you will be supporting all the conservation work that we do, as profits from the café go straight back into helping nature. You will be welcoming all visitors with a smile, serving them with refreshments, and helping all our visitors to enjoy St Aidan's. We welcome applications from young people who are under 18 and wanting to gain volunteering experience. This is a great thing to add to your CV. Giving your time for something you believe in is a good thing to do, and makes you stand out against others when applying for jobs.

You will:

• Assist in the organisation, service and sale of refreshments, delivering excellent customer service, operating the till, keeping things stocked up and developing good product knowledge.
• Welcome every visitor with a smile, in a warm and friendly manner, ensuring everyone leaves with a positive impression of the RSPB in general and of St Aidan’s in particular.
• Answer the phone and be able to answer enquiries or pass on to an appropriate colleague.
• Ensure the Café is kept as an attractive and welcoming environment for visitors, including cleaning duties and ensuring daily quality assurance checks are undertaken.
• Depending on your shift, assist in setting up and opening the centre and/or clearing up at the end of the day and closing the Centre
• Assist the visitor team to develop and deliver visitor activities and events.
• Engage with and give information to visitors about where they might best see the wildlife on site.
• Promote events and activities at St Aidan’s to the public.
• Encourage people to support the RSPB, including through membership, and thank existing members for their support.

You will:

• Be approachable and friendly, with an outgoing personality, have good people skills, an enthusiasm for nature and the work of the RSPB.
• Be happy and confident to welcome and initiate conversations with visitors and to talk to visitors about key areas such as supporting the RSPB.
• Be able to work as part of team.
• Be organised and have a basic knowledge of customer service, basic computer skills for till/technology use and a willingness to learn
• Some knowledge of the wildlife on the reserve would be desirable but is definitely not essential!

You will be working with a friendly team on a beautiful nature reserve, you will have the opportunity to make new friends. You will get to meet lots of new people, enjoy conversations and help people have a wonderful visit. Profits made from our café mean that we can continue to do the work we need to protect nature at St Aidan's and your help will be contributing to this.

You can claim your travel expenses when volunteering, and you will be provided with a uniform and all the resources and training you need to undertake your role. You will have opportunities to learn new things and gain new skills and to learn about our reserves and the wildlife that is found here. You will need to undertake some essential online training, either at home or on site and you will be supported by a line manager and have lots of opportunity to discuss your role with them.

This is an essential role to support the running of our café, and therefore we do have fixed shifts to ensure we are able to operate as planned. These are: : Full day 9am to 4.30pm in winter and 5.30pm in summer, Morning 9am to 1.00pm, Afternoon 1.00pm to 4.30pm in winter and 5.30pm in summer, Lunch cover 11.30am to 2.30pm.

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