Durrell Diaries: 'Contributing to the kind of world I want to be a part of'

In this week’s Durrell Diaries, Daniel Craven, Learning and Development Manager and Head of Volunteers, shares why he is passionate about helping people reach their full potential. 

As Learning and Development Manager, and Head of Volunteers, I work across most of our departments at Durrell, enabling and encouraging colleagues to continue their professional development.  

I get to work alongside some fantastic people; volunteers who freely give up their time to support our mission and Durrell staff, whose own dedication to continue growing and developing in their career is an inspiration to me. 

I’ve had quite a unique career path at Durrell myself, after initially joining the gardening team as a Landscape Assistant in 2001. Since then, I have been Organic Farm Assistant, Operations Support, Conservation Education Officer and most recently Volunteer Manager, before moving into my current role. 

Durrell has been incredibly supportive of me over the past 20 years in helping me learn, develop and define my own career path, so being able to support my colleagues and our wonderful volunteers to get the most of their time at Durrell is something I am incredibly passionate about.  

Durrell's mission to save species from extinction is a huge responsibility, with so much on the line for the species we work with. We want all our staff to achieve their potential, be the best they can be, and continue to make positive contributions to conservation and the chances of species survival. To enable them to do this, we know we need to offer them a variety of development opportunities. 

We are very lucky to have the Durrell Conservation Academy on site, which has a wide range of soft skills and technical courses taught by staff and training partners and is a great way for colleagues to learn more about Durrell's approach and upskill in-house. The Academy also runs courses such as Facilitation and Communication Skills, and Endangered Species Recovery for those wishing to develop their expertise in these areas. Courses like our ‘Flight Management Development Programme’, equip our managers with mental health training, psychometric testing and best practice for fostering a high trust, high performance environment and creating a great culture. 

We know that we also need to look outside of the organisation to give our staff training. As a charity, it’s important our budget and resources are maximised and that we utilise networks and strengthen relationships we have, which is a big part of my role. 

We are fortunate to have a fantastic network of training partners, such as Walkers Law firm, experts in Jersey workplace law, who support us with ‘lunch and learn’ sessions, covering topics like flexible working, performance management and discrimination. We also work with Mind Jersey, partners for our 'Flight’ Programme and other experts in their field helping us advance our people in various roles and disciplines. 

Working with a team of extraordinary people who get up each day, linked by our mission of 'Saving Species from Extinction', ultimately allows me to contribute to the kind of world I want to be a part of. Seeing individuals, also with this mindset, improve and develop as part of their volunteer role or staff training, as I have been fortunate to do, is very rewarding. I feel very lucky to call myself part of Team Durrell. 

This article was originally printed in the Jersey Evening Post on Friday 8 November.