Whilst on a trip to the UK many years ago, I discovered a British treasure! The National Trust is a conservation with one of the largest memberships of public subscriptions ever seen in the UK. They look after places of interest and stately homes, gardens and countryside’s, even the coasts, preserving them for everyone to enjoy for many more years to come.
With a huge variety of former castles and historical dwellings, open areas, rivers and walks dotted all over the UK to access, this was one of the first activities on my list when my plane hit the tarmac at Heathrow. The only problem was, with so many places to see, there was no way I was going to be able to visit each one – so I had to prioritise my places of interest!
What Is So Special About the National Trust?
Without the services of the National Trust, many places would not be standing now. They exist to show visitors what it was once like to walk the grounds of stately homes, how people in the past lived and worked, and what their gardens would have been like back then. They also work to keep the coastal areas clean, safe and somewhere families can attend in the knowledge they are contributing towards protecting such areas of interest.
For a reasonable annual fee, people can join the National Trust as valid members, and their donations go towards keeping the places running and worked on and, ultimately, preserved.
The National Trust Is Great for Careers
What I found even more appealing than most about the National Trust is their career opportunities. On one of our activities, we were taken out by a NT tour guide who had an impressive knowledge of the Carding Valley Mill, in a quaint village named Shropshire. With so much enthusiasm and knowledge, I gained more information from our guide than I believe I would even have done so by reading a book! Later, as our group all stopped for tea and cake, I learned that our tour guide was in fact a geography specialist working on a PHD, and was also a local exam marker for the Geography GCSE papers in Britain!
What We Can All Learn from The National Trust Model
I would love to see this implemented back here in New Zealand, or maybe even just some of the principals of the NT model. We have so many places of interest that need looking after for future generations, and this could perhaps be the way we financially and educationally achieve this. It is also a great way of getting the future generation involved by allowing them to see that such careers in this industry do in fact exist, and you can make a good living from such a fascinating career option.
