Kick off your conservation career in Thailand. Gain conservation research skills and valuable field work experience while living and working with other conservation apprentices in Thailand’s coastal area of Phang Nga. Work alongside local conservation organisations, working toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, UN SDGs, #14, Life below Water and #15 Life Below Land, learning about and contributing toward sea turtle, tropical bird and butterfly surveys, and island conservation, camera trapping, marine plastic pollution, and the importance of environmental education.
Gain the skills and experience needed to start your career as a conservationist by completing this six month apprenticeship program in Thailand. You will be living in the village of Ban Nam Khem, a traditional fishing community, in Thailand’s province of Phang Nga, an area known worldwide for the dramatic beauty of its unique coastal and marine habitats. Our team in Phang Nga have been running both community and conservation projects in the region for several years. These projects have been set up in partnership with local conservation organisations like Phang Nga Royal Thai Navy Sea Turtle Conservation Centre and the objectives of all projects are aligned to the 17 UN SDGs.
On this coastal conservation apprenticeship, apprentices will first complete the training aspect of the program for the initial three months. Apprentices will gain an in-depth understanding of the conservation projects run at our base in Phang Nga, learning about our project partners, research techniques and conservation best practices.
Live and work in the traditional fishing community of Ban Nam Khem in Phang Nga province, a region known for its dramatic beauty, mangroves, limestone cliffs, white-sanded beaches, and tropical islets.
This internship is specifically useful for someone who has or is actively studying the below subject areas at school, university or college, or has an interest in these subject areas.
Some of the example typical activities you could participate in on this program.
Learn how to identify species, conduct surveys and population assessments, assess threats to terrestrial ecosystems, and track ecosystem-level processes.
Work at the Royal Thai Navy Sea Turtle Conservation Centre and assist with animal husbandry, enclosure enrichment studies, morphology studies, and tank cleaning and maintenance.
Contribute to ongoing sea turtle surveys. The data you collect in the field will contribute to an ongoing flagship conservation project or can be used to author your individual research thesis.
You will get involved in our ongoing conservation project work – including conducting beach cleans, beach profiling, biodiversity surveys, entering data into citizen science databases, and leading environmental education and community outreach on marine and environmental topics.
Take part in the following courses: Impact and Ethics, Intro to Project Management, Effective Communication, Leading Teams for Impact, Off-Site Safety Management, Participant Management, Self Leadership & Wellbeing, and GVI Policies and Procedures.
Take on a leadership role within the project team, becoming responsible for resource and project management tasks such as entering data, writing reports and summaries, and updating species lists and fieldwork checklists.
Access exclusive datasets or work on additional research objectives that align with your individual academic interests or ambitions.
Meet weekly in a small group of other apprentices and interns to receive project guidance and feedback on your leadership style from a dedicated mentor.
Some of the partners we work with on base.
General | |
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Food | |
Safe and basic accommodation (usually shared) | |
Airport pick up (unless stated) | |
All project equipment | |
24-hour in-country support from local staff | |
24-hour emergency desk | |
GVI Experiences |
Activities | |
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Sustainable project work | |
Data collection and research | |
Leadership responsibilities | |
Personal project |
Placement | |
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12-week placement |
Mentorship | |
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Weekly group sessions | |
Internship supervisor guidance |
Pre-program training | |
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Pre-departure webinar | |
Pre-departure training (online) | |
University of Richmond endorsed specialisation course | |
University of Richmond endorsed leadership course |
Welcome training | |
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GVI welcome presentation | |
Health & safety | |
Local culture & environment | |
UN SDGs | |
Impact & ethics | |
Child protection |
Advanced leadership training | |
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Personal development record | |
Project planning and management |
Fast track training | |
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Self-leadership and well-being | |
Project management | |
Ethical engagement | |
Measuring impact | |
Developing intercultural competence | |
Effective communication (storytelling and social media) | |
Team management | |
Participant journey | |
Off-site safety management | |
Safety management in practice (OSSM part 2) | |
Standards, policies and procedures | |
Emergency first response (select hubs) |
Career services | |
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University of Richmond careers course | |
Career coaching sessions (x2) | |
Career guarantee | |
LinkedIn reference – upon request | |
Job portal | |
Preferential recruitment on GVI positions |
Certificates | |
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Program certificate | |
University certificate – specialisation (University of Richmond) | |
University certificate – leadership (University of Richmond) | |
University certificate – careers (University of Richmond) | |
Fast track training certificate |
Not included |
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Flights |
International and domestic airport taxes |
Medical and travel insurance |
Visa costs |
Police or background check |
Personal items and toiletries |
Additional drinks and gratuities |
Located in the town of Ban Chong Pli, within the picturesque Krabi Province, our research station offers easy access to the vibrant town of Ao Nang, just a short 15-minute drive away.
Krabi Province, located on Thailand’s southwest coast, offers a wealth of natural beauty with its stunning beaches, limestone cliffs and lush forests. You can enjoy activities like rock climbing and kayaking, or go for a hike in nearby national parks such as Khao Phanom Bencha and Than Bok Khorani to spot wildlife and take in the scenery. Immerse yourself in the local culture with visits to temples, shopping and nightlife.
As a volunteer in Thailand, you’ll have the chance to see incredible species like turtles, dugongs, whale sharks, gibbons, woodpeckers and hornbills. Don’t miss out on Krabi’s attractions, including the Emerald Pond and Tiger Temple Cave. And make sure to explore the Andaman islands for their marine life.
You’ll stay in cosy bungalows overlooking stunning caves and mountains. Each spot boasts a private bathroom and a balcony with direct views of th...
An accommodation upgrade is available at an extra charge, depending on availability.
...When you arrive at Krabi International Airport (KBV), we’ll pick you up and take you to your accommodation. Throughout your stay, we’...
Stay connected during your stay with Wi-Fi available at your accommodation. Need mobile data on the go? Upon arrival at the airport or in various...
Breakfast and lunch are provided at your accommodation from Monday to Friday. Breakfast typically features a combination of eggs, toast, fruits a...
Thailand has a tropical climate, perfect for enjoying its stunning beaches. There are two distinct seasons: dry and wet. Dry season (Nov-Apr): Lo...
When on project and in the local town participants will be expected to wear modest clothing and behave in ways in keeping with Thai
We want you to make the most of the chance to live in – and contribute towards – the most diverse and unique wildernesses and communities on earth. Introducing GVI Experiences – immersive adventure, cultural and wellness activities exclusive to GVI that have been specially designed in collaboration with our local partners to support and stimulate sustainable economic development.
Enhance your impact. Expand your adventure. Explore your world.
Joining a GVI program not only allows you to collaborate with communities or work toward preserving unique ecosystems – but it also offers plenty of opportunities to explore the surrounding area or travel further to see what other parts of the region have to offer over weekends.
Field staff are a great source of advice and have helped us put together the following information on local travel options. You can choose to travel before or after your experience with GVI (subject to immigration restrictions), solidifying the lifetime friendships you’ve established on the program. Please note that the below options are not included in the program fee, and would be up to you to arrange at your own expense.
The Similan and Surin Islands are both protected Marine National Pa...
This is a very popular tourist spot. It’s filled with seemingly endless beaches, so many dining options you will be spoilt for choice, and hundreds of spas offering massages and...
Said to be more diverse than the Amazon, this 740 square metre rainforest reserve is home to elephants, deer, monkeys, lizards, birds, and the Rafflesia, a giant flowering plant...
Phuket is a tourism hotspot – as popular for its spectacular beaches, diving and
Thailand boasts some of the top beach destinations in the world, with Railay beach being one of the most popular. A peninsula on the Andaman coast, it consists of three separate...
Explore the warm turquoise waters and limestone cliffs of Phang Nga by speedboat or sea kayak, stopping off at James Bond Island – made famous by...
This protected marine park covers a huge area, including over 50 islands. Visit the jungle island of Koh Chang, where you can snorkel or scuba-dive off the coast and experience ...
Also known as “‘Turtle Island”’ this is another excellent destination for snorkelling and scuba-diving, or simply relaxing on the beach. The visi...
Explore the many natural sites of Nan, bordering Laos – like Doi Phu Kha National Park and Si Nan National Park. It is the perfect area to experience the dense natural forests t...
Explore the picturesque waterfalls of Khao Yai in central Thailand. Here you can spot unique Thai wildlife like
Travel to the city complex ruins of Ayutthaya to learn more about Thailand’s heritage. This spectacular, but now abandoned city used to be the medieval capital of Siam.
...Set in the verdant mountainsides of Northern Thailand, the golden city of Chiang Mai is a breathtaking sight to behold. Visit historic temples and hunt for treasures at local ma...
There is a reason why the capital of Thailand is one of the most visited sites in the country. Featuring gorgeous temples, the spectacular Grand Palace, and many excellent shopp...
Engaging intimately with a new context teaches global awareness, adaptability and critical thinking – skills highly valued in the modern marketplace. Local and cultural immersion is encouraged on all our programs around the world, and will also be one of the most enjoyable aspects of your experience. Luckily, there are many different activities that you can get involved in during your free time, or before and after your program.
On our community programs, the focus is on cultural topics, while on marine or wildlife programs the emphasis is more on the environmental element. Use your evenings and weekends to explore topics like local cuisine and religion, or how sustainable development challenges are affecting local contexts.
February: Magha Puja is an important Buddhist holiday, celebrated on the new moon of the third lunar month...
Most Thai people subscribe to Theravada Buddhism. There are many local Buddhist sites in the region of Phang Nga that you can visit to learn more about Buddhist customs. Travel ...
The fluid movements and opulent gilded costumes of Thai traditional dancing are recognisable worldwide. Learn about the six types of Thai classical dance, watch a performance, o...
Thai food is famous the world over and is known for its fragrant, spicy flavours. Participants may be luck...
There are about 71 languages in Thailand with five main families: Austronesian, Hmong-Mien, Thai, Mon-Khmer and Sino-Tibetan. Thai is the national language of Thailand which is ...
Known for its amazing limestone rock formations, pristine beaches and
If you’d like to find out what the experience of joining a GVI project is really like, simply contact us and we’ll put you in touch with one of our many Alumni.
We’ll try to match you to an Alum based on your location, nationality, age, stage of academic career, gender, and program interests. This allows you to gain insights into the experience that is most relevant to you.
Depending on your location you might be able to speak to an Alum over the phone or online, or meet up with them face-to-face at a coffee shop nearby. We also run a series of small events around the world where you can speak to GVI Alumni, Ambassadors and staff members.
Conservation Program Coordinator
Meet Eve our Conservation Program Coordinator in Phang Nga, Thailand. She was born in the United Kingdom but has since lived and worked in many countries across Europe. She is e ...
‘If only every student could do this. It changes your life in all the right ways,’ says Chris Heritage, parent of Luke Heritage, one of our teen volunteers who has participated on two GVI programs, one in Costa Rica and another in South Africa.
We are a parent-run organisation that is incredibly serious about health and safety, and increasing the impact, as well as the long-term career benefits of our programs. Our programs help young people develop the skills to select a career path that is personally fulfilling, and live a life aligned to the well-being of our planet and the global community.
GVI is a proud member of the Gap Year Association.
Ken and Linda Jeffrey, whose son Sam volunteered with GVI in Thailand, talk about how the experience affected Sam. He also went on to volunteer with GVI again in South Africa. ‘I know it sounds like a cliche but in a sense, he did go away as a boy and he came back as a young man. Both of us could recommend GVI without any hesitation to any other parent thinking about exploring an opportunity for their children to explore the world and to see different parts of it.’
Download the Parent Pack and learn more about:
Our staff: All our projects are run by staff, selected, vetted, trained, and managed by our central office.
Health and safety: Our safety practices include a child and vulnerable adult protection policy and high participant ratios.
Staying in touch: See what’s happening on base, by following a hub’s dedicated Facebook page.
Free parent consultations: We would love to talk to you about exciting opportunities available for your child.
When it comes to support, we ensure that each participant is provided with unparalleled, 360 degree support, from your initial contact with the GVI Family, all the way through your program, and even after, as you become part of the GVI Alumni Team.
As part of this promise, we will ensure, whenever possible, that one of our dedicated staff will be available to meet you at the airport. In most locations, we also set up a Whatsapp group to help with managing airport arrivals.
We will arrange with you prior to your departure that, should you arrive in the agreed upon pick up window, a member of our staff will be there to welcome you, easily identifiable in a GVI t-shirt or holding a GVI sign and wearing a friendly smile.
This means there will be someone there to greet you as you land, and from there you will be transported to your GVI base to start your adventure and meet the rest of your team.
All of our programs have short-, mid- and long-term objectives that align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). This enables us to report on our collaborative impact across the world in a streamlined manner, measuring which UN SDGs we are making a substantial contribution to. Furthermore, this will help our local partners and communities measure and visualise their contribution to the UN SDGs.
Prior to your arrival on base, you will be educated about the UN SDGs. Then once you arrive on base, you’ll learn about the specific goals we have in this particular location, our various objectives, and also clarification of how your personal, shorter-term involvement contributes to these.
Our aim is to educate you on local and global issues, so that you continue to be an active global citizen after your program, helping to fulfil our mission of building a global network of people united by their passion to make a difference.
GVI Ao Nang Long-term Objectives:
1. Promote sea turtle and dugong conservation.
2. Provide long-term and consistent data to conservation partners.
3. Increase public awareness of environmental issues and importance of environmental protection.
4. Assist with local marine and coastal waste management efforts.
5. Educate and train participants on biodiversity, survey techniques and marine conservation.
Below is a list of core ethics and best practices we believe are essential to the operation of high quality, ethical volunteer and sustainable development programs. We believe that all responsible volunteer and sustainable development operations should focus upon these principles. If you are considering volunteering, these are some of the key considerations you should question, to ensure that your time and money contributes towards positive change.
We want to constantly develop our own understanding of ethical best practice. In so doing, we aim to provide an exemplary industry standard for other education institutions, international development organisations, and social enterprises. Our Badge of Ethics stands for the drive to always do good, better. Find out more, click on the Badge below.
We aim to design all our projects in collaboration with local organizations and communities and ensure that they are locally driven.
We aim to clearly define short-, mid-, and long-term objectives with sustainable outcomes for all our projects.
We aim to track, record, and publish the impact of each of our projects.
We aim to build in-country capacity by assisting local organizations in becoming self-sustaining.
For each local organization we work with, we aim to have a plan in place for withdrawing support responsibly.
We aim to ensure that every participant is assigned a clear role and that they are fully trained and supported to carry out their work by specialized staff.
In all our actions we aim to respect the skills and efforts of all and seek to protect the rights, culture and dignity of everyone who engages with GVI.
We work to ensure that credit for the results of any project, along with any data collected, research conducted, or Intellectual Property developed, remains the property of local organizations.
We do not condone and aim to withdraw support of orphanages and residential care centers.
We will live by our Child Protection and Vulnerable Adult policies.
As an organization, GVI is committed to striving toward best practice, and to educating both our potential participants, our partners, and the world at large about them. Both the volunteering and sustainable development sectors are increasingly, and rightly, under scrutiny. Many recent local and global articles highlight poor practices and questionable ethics. GVI is widely recognized for striving to apply global best practice in the volunteering, education and sustainable development sectors throughout our operations by reputable organizations such as ChildSafe.
However, global best practice is always evolving and we dedicate both time and resources to engage with internationally respected experts and learn from the latest research to ensure our programs both fulfil their potential to create maximum positive impact, and minimise their potential to create unintentional negative impact. Along with and as part of the sustainable development and volunteering community, we are constantly learning and applying this learning to practice. We do not always get everything right, but we seek feedback from our community members, partners, participants and our staff, and react accordingly. We know are already doing a great job, and feedback we have received confirms this, but we aim to do even better and are continuously refining our operations to improve upon our already excellent reputation.
We don’t support or allow participants to work in institutional residential care facilities, also known as orphanages. We partner with ReThink Orphanages and Freedom United.
Our Child and Vulnerable Adult Protection Policy requires all our staff and participants to complete a criminal background check and to learn why you shouldn’t reveal a child’s identifying factors in photographs. We support the ChildSafe Movement.
We don’t offer any programs where our participants engage in medical treatment. This is because our participants aren’t typically qualified to do this work and would therefore not be able to do this work in their home country. Our participants only assist with public health programs.
We don’t offer any programs where our participants work directly with people with disabilities. This is because our participants aren’t typically qualified to do this work and would therefore not be able to do this work in their home country.
Each one of our initiatives is aligned to objectives set by a local organisation or professional. Our staff and participants work to support these local actors in achieving their specific goals.
Our participants don’t replace the staff employed by local organisations. Rather, they support currently employed staff with achieving their objectives. Our goal is always to increase local capacity to address local problems.
Participants require training and support to ensure that they carry out tasks correctly. Our staff provide this training and support so that local staff can focus on what is truly important to their organisation at the time.
We don’t support the use of wild animals for entertainment purposes. This includes riding animals, having them perform tricks, feeding or bathing them or getting close to them to take photos
We don’t encourage, support or allow the rearing of “orphaned” wild baby animals kept at a “sanctuary”. The conservation value of these types of programs is negligent and would only ethically be used in extremely rare cases
When wild animals are restricted for conservation purposes we follow the guidelines of Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA), approved by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
We ensure that the Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare are followed. These include the freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from distress, discomfort, hunger, thirst, fear, pain, injury or disease.
We ensure that conservation efforts are also always locally led, that community needs are front-and centre of any conservation effort and that our participants, projects and partners work to increase local community engagement in local conservation efforts.
We don’t offer any veterinary programs or animal rescue and rehabilitation programs. We don’t allow participants to do any work they would not be able to do in their home country.
We won’t sugarcoat it — traveling abroad is usually a complex process that carries an element of risk. But this is exactly why we’re passionate about providing extensive support throughout the process as well as the highest safety standards during the in-country phase. We believe that volunteering abroad should not only be impactful, but an enjoyable experience that carries as little risk as possible. This is exactly how we’ve been able to maintain our reputation as the most highly respected volunteering organisations in the sector over the past two decades.
It takes courage to book a GVI program, get on a flight, and head off to somewhere new. Volunteering offers a level of cultural immersion that typical backpacking or holidays ju...
As the saying goes: ‘Expect the best, plan for the worst’. Cliched or not, we take it to heart. This tenet is at the core of how GVI operates when it comes to promoting the heal...
The weather isn’t just a topic for polite small-talk here at GVI. We have emergency action plans in place for all scenarios. So when the weather, or other natural forces, takes ...
Once GVI has matched a participant to a program that suits their passions and goals, our team aims to set the right expectations for them. In the event that false expectations a...
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