Friends of the Earth Scotland
Real Living Wage rate of £12.60 per hour
Hybrid working, with at least one day a week in the Friends of the Earth Scotland office in central Edinburgh. The post is also open for full time home working consideration.
Closing 24 February, 2025
Payment: Real Living Wage rate of £12.60 per hour.
Contract: 3 days per week for 12 months.
Location: Hybrid working, with at least one day a week in the Friends of the Earth Scotland office in central Edinburgh. The post is also open for full time home working consideration.
Organisation profile: Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) is Scotland’s leading environmental campaigns organisation, fighting for environmental justice and a just transition to a fossil fuel free Scotland.
Their grassroots youth network, Young FoES, provides education, connection and support to young people aged 16-30 who want to take action on climate and social justice. We organise gatherings, trainings, social events and provide direct support to groups and campaigns. Their network is youth-led and non-hierarchical, with a core structure of volunteer working groups currently supported by one staff member. Young FoES organises largely online, with regular events both in-person and online.
Website: https://foe.scot/get-involved/young-friends-earth-scotland/
Friends of the Earth Scotland, Scotland’s leading environmental campaigns organisation, is hosting a paid Internship with the support of Inclusion Scotland.
The Scottish Government funds Inclusion Scotland to set up and support paid internships for disabled people in diverse settings. This includes, but is not restricted to Local Government, Scottish Government, Health Boards, Public Bodies and Organisations that influence public sector employees such as membership organisations.
The aim of this project is to provide quality paid work experience for disabled people to increase their skills, opportunities and professional networks. Through this process, host organisations will learn about supporting disabled people as employees and colleagues, increasing the diversity and experiences of people organisations that provide services to the public.
Internships are acknowledged as an important route into the world of work for people pursuing professional careers. Unfortunately, there has been a history of internships being offered as unpaid opportunities which benefit mostly wealthy people and those with few barriers to work. Our internships are paid and open only to disabled people. Previous interns have told us that coming into this programme openly as a disabled person meant that they felt relieved that the opportunity was inclusive. We hope that in the long term our work will help make the world of employment more inclusive with barriers for disabled people considerably reduced or completely removed.
With the launch of our new strategy in 2024, we are now looking for an intern to support the growth of Young FoES. This role will work on outreach and engagement, connecting a wide variety of young people and organisations to our network, as well as supporting our members, assisting with events and activities, and contributing to the general running of the network.
There is a lot of potential for flexibility within the role depending on skills and interests, and you may choose to focus more on certain aspect of the role.
You will gain skills in facilitation, event planning, teamwork and a range of communication styles. You will learn more about the Scottish environmental movement, political education and climate activism and campaigning.
This role will work alongside the Young FoES Network Coordinator and sit within our Movement Building team.
As this role involves working directly with young volunteers who are often in full time education or working, it necessitates regular evening and weekend work for which Time Off In Lieu will be granted.
– Helping to build and support a strong, diverse and inclusive Young FoES network, with active individuals and connected groups across Scotland
– Undertaking outreach to build relationships and engage new people and groups with our network by attending events, using digital communication channels and approaching relevant partner organisations.
– Supporting at least one volunteer working group, attending meetings and assisting with administrative tasks where needed. This could include facilitating, minute taking, supporting with projects and tasks.
– Assisting with the monitoring -of the Young FoES social media channels, monthly newsletter and other communication channels, and creating promotional materials.
– Assisting with the planning and delivery of events and workshops, with scope to take on more responsibility if desired.
– Contributing to general administrative support of the network where needed. This could include organising meetings, onboarding new people to our organising platform, internal communications and attending coordination meetings.
– Supporting FoES colleagues with the delivery of activism and movement building events where desired
– Demonstrable commitment to environmental and social justice as well as a commitment to challenging inequality and oppression.
– Understanding of and enthusiasm for the aims of Young FoES
– Ability to advocate for a youth perspective.
– Proven ability of working with and relating to young people in the Young FoES age range (16-30).
– Ability to multi-task, set priorities, self-motivate and manage time efficiently
– Excellent teamwork skills, whether working with FoES staff or groups of volunteers
– Good written and oral communication skills
– Knowledge of Microsoft Office suites (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) and strong IT skills
– Familiarity with social media platforms including Instagram and Tiktok
– Have a clear need for the opportunity and be able to show how it will help you overcome barriers to achieving your career goals. (This is assessed in the sections motivation for applying, skills development, and current employment status.)
– Must define as Deaf or disabled which includes physical, sensory and mental impairments, autistic spectrum, learning disabilities, learning difficulties such as dyslexia or long term health conditions. (You do not need to give details in the supporting statement unless you wish to. If you do, this will not be removed from the application before the shortlisting panel sees it.)
– Experience of working with people from diverse backgrounds and communities
– Experience with an environmental or social justice group / organisation / movement
– Experience organising events and running meetings
Internships will enable you as an intern to develop skills and knowledge that should improve your employability more generally. As an Intern you will join the employing organisation, where you will carry out a designated project as detailed below. Giving you responsibility for the planning, delivery and evaluation of a piece of work will help you gain a variety of skills and experiences in work. There may also be some chances to shadow the staff team which could give you a better understanding of different work roles you might wish to pursue in your career beyond the internship. The exact content of each internship will vary, depending on the needs of the employer. The roles will be challenging but you will be supported by your colleagues to successfully carry out the work.
Interns will receive support, as necessary, with Access to Work applications, reasonable adjustments, and any issue that might arise. We will aim to signpost you to services which can provide ongoing support to look for work beyond the internship, and we will encourage interns to be involved in our peer network and other activities relating to this work such as events, publicity and shaping the development of the programme.
More information can be found in our Inclusion Scotland applicant’s handbook.
Shortlisting will take place between Inclusion Scotland and the host employer. We aim to provide prompt, constructive feedback to applicants who are unsuccessful, although we hope to offer interview to as many candidates as we can where practical.
The application form gives you the opportunity to request reasonable adjustments for interview. It is natural to worry that these may be taken into consideration when we shortlist, but this is not the case! We like to know what we can do to help you have a fair and equal chance in your interview.
We are the grant holders for this project. Our role during the internship includes supporting interns and employers with disability related adjustments, facilitating peer support, carrying out monitoring and evaluation, and gathering learning to inform approach to inclusive employment.
Inclusion Scotland’s mission is ‘to ensure that policy affecting the everyday lives of disabled people in Scotland is informed by and reflects their views, so that the full inclusion of disabled people into all aspects of Scottish society can be achieved.’ We work to promote understanding of the physical, social, economic, cultural and attitudinal barriers that limit disabled people’s everyday lives and we advocate action for their removal. We do this by providing information, capacity-building and carrying out policy work. For further information about us see: http://www.inclusionscotland.org/ .
If you would like to discuss this opportunity with the employer prior to submitting your application, please contact: Catrina Randall at crandall@foe.scot
Completed applications to be forwarded by 12noon on Monday 24 February 2025 to Ellis Moffat at interns@inclusionscotland.org
Download our Internship Application Pack below or you can request one by emailing us at interns@inclustionscotland.org. This will allow you to access a folder containing the following documents in Microsoft Word format:
If you require this in an alternative format, please get in touch by email.
Read all the documents carefully. Fill in and save a copy of either the 'Internship Application Form' or the 'Plain Text Internship Application Form'. For the Supporting Statement section, please remember to match your skills, knowledge and experience to those listed in the Person Specifications of the Job Description.
Return the 'Internship Application Form' or 'Plain Text Internship Application Form' via email to interns@inclusionscotland.org before the deadline.
By clicking on the Download Now! button you will be downloading a zip folder. To access these documents, you will need to double click on the folder.
