1 Month Trainee Programmes

This short-stay program is primarily targeted at animal or tourism professionals although it might be open to other applicants in special circumstances.

Short 'guide' experiences with us are generally restricted to those visiting as part of a school traineeship - either from within the tourism sector or, for instance, animal-related industries.

We spend one week working with trainees one-on-one through a prescribed action plan targeted at introducing the basic daily tasks on the farm.

This is followed by a consolidation week supported by a designated mentor in which you identify gaps in your basic knowledge and target areas of interest for continued learning.

Vet students, for instance, might want more practice in handling and basic assessment, nail clipping, anal-gland emptying, heart-listening etc, and they might be given insight into the medical role on the farm.

Those targeting a wilderness guiding certification may be interested in maintenance and repairs or client interaction, safari preparation or even marketing and website maintenance. Regardless of field of expertise, everyone is expected to master and complete basic tasks during their stay.

At the end of one month, most people will be independently able to perform the basic farm tasks at the time of year that they are visiting in, without too much supervision. They will not, however, have much line of sight to what goes on here at different times of year and are unlikely to feel like a functioning member of the team. For that reason, we view the time commitment needed to support a 1-month trainee more as a contribution to the work of the professional schools and colleges than as something that we can benefit from.