Online Training For Successful Conservation Projects

WildTeam teach a suite of best practices, designed to support wildlife conservation projects across global contexts. They have moved from classroom-based teaching to online teaching, in order to reach more people. This has come with challenges and successes; they continue to adapt in order to best teach and support conservationists across the world to deliver impactful projects. Ali will share WildTeam’s learning, and vision for the future of online training in the conservation sector.

Q&A with Ali Skeats

Ali Skeats has worked in conservation project management and consultancy for 7 years, moving into the field from managing practical conservation projects. Ali is deeply invested in up-skilling others to deliver effective conservation projects and believes that teaching and supporting the people living and working closest to the conservation situation is the most impactful way to do this.

Have you encountered differences in digital cultures with educating people from across the globe and what challenges do these present?
there can be variability in how people behave when using tech such as Zoom. For example, learners from some areas are much more willing to interact verbally via virtual meeting rooms on Zoom than learners from other areas, who might use the “hand-up” function and wait to be invited to speak. You don’t get this as much in a classroom as you are more able to read body language. We see similar variations in the way learners interact with the worksheets, emails and WildHub too.
Is this training also available for free for UK learners or do you only provide free training to developing countries?
Rather than offering free courses, we offer bursaries, which may cover partial or full costs. Our bursaries are open to all and are designed to help those who are unable to afford the full cost. We prioritise those who can demonstrate the greatest potential for increased conservation impact or career progression, as well as those who are in need of financial support. More information can be found on our Bursaries webpage.
Are the best practice manuals that your courses are based on available without signing up for the course?
Yes. All of our best practice manuals are available to download from the Conservation Best Practice webpage. We have best practice manuals for stakeholder engagement, project planning, project management, grant writing, delivering training and monitoring & evaluation. These best practice manuals come with a suite of tools such as trackers that can be used and adapted by organisations regardless of whether their staff have signed up for our training courses.
Have you got any new best practice guidelines or courses coming up in the near future?
We are currently working on leadership in conservation and wellbeing best practice manuals and their associated courses. As we are building our conservation trainers network, we are also looking to get our best practice manuals translated into other languages (starting with French) so that more people an teach using our materials.