The AWF has facilitated educational group visit for some twenty years.
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Typically, they fall into four main categories

1. Field trips Tenerife

From environment to geography to tourism and everything in between. The AWF supplies: the accommodation- multi bedded hostel rooms for students and comfortable apartments for faculty; all catering requirements including special dietary requirements; airport transfers; health and safety inductions and planning; itinerary planning and support as required; mini bus transport for the duration of the programme with experienced drivers as required. The cost is £200 per person in the group.

2. Bespoke programmes Tenerife

We run EU funded programmes for animal management, travel and tourism, sports management, business and creative courses- film making, graphic design, social media etc.
Our basic model, which works extremely well breaks week into three fairly intense sections:

1. Working as research guides on the whale watching boats and/ or at animal refuge centres, or a combination thereof.
2. Familiarisation trips to see the island. These are daily with part of the group going out each day and reporting back to the whole group the following evening so that, collectively, they get to see everything.
3. Individual/ small team project work to be designed between faculty, students and ourselves. This could have a research, education, conservation or media focus and would be designed to be mutually beneficial. Students have to present their project at the end of the stay.  If of interest, we can arrange for interviews for students interested in coming back to work in Tenerife in the Summer.

For partner colleges there is no cost to their students and faculty and the former receive a stipend of €50pw in addition. If you want to learn how to become a partner college contact Ed@whalenation.org. Non partner colleges and take advantage of this model at a cost of £200pw per person.

3. Educational groups to project bases in Asia and Africa (Usually Sri Lanka and Vietnam) 

These are organised as part of Global Citizenship initiatives. The students find their own flight costs and combine fundraising with acquisition of resources, mainly educational, to be shipped out to the project before their visit. There is no direct cost to students, apart from their flights, and all itineraries are designed directly with them and their faculty.

4. EU Programmes

All educational experiential learning programmes are delivered within our general volunteer framework but with additional elements to meet the specific needs of educational partners across Europe. Most educational partnerships are funded through the European Union, providing great opportunities for young people who otherwise would not get the opportunity to gain work experience abroad.
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To get more details of how to become an educational partner, please contact ed@whalenation.org. If you want to find out if your own college or school is in a partnership arrangement with us, please contact Ed.

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Educational Programme Framework:

1. General background
2. Educational Support
3. Employability and networking
4. Key subject areas:- A. Travel & Tourism B. Animal Management C. Sports D. Graphic Design & Creative Media E. Education- Teacher Training

1. General background

We provide in Tenerife the following capacities:

• Specialist support team providing: pastoral support and all logistical arrangements; a mentoring panel offering variously research, business, conservation and other academic and professional support ; volunteer co-ordinator working with an international co-ordinator team directly with students. Each student has an assigned co-ordinator and an academic/ business mentor as well as in-house pastoral support.
• Language support. The working language of the project is English and all our materials are, additionally, in Spanish, French, German, Dutch and Polish. Focus of linguistic support is Spanish but training is also available in the other languages as well. Students are expected to at least be able to greet people in these languages.
• Accommodation and food (not lunches) are provided although students are expected to help in preparation of dishes and cleaning up after meals. Emphasis will be on learning to cook Canarian (and Spanish) dishes. Food will be wholesome and will cater for allergies, preferences (vegetarian etc.)
• Our induction process includes awareness of a wide range of social and cultural activities to help ensure the value of the experience is maximised.

2. Educational Support

The educational framework in Tenerife will consist of several key elements: targeted work experience; delivery of an agreed programme to cover specific learning goals (see below); linguistic training; employability skills- CV writing and interview skills/ presentation etc. Every programme will contain real life interview situations where students will have the opportunity of securing work if successful.


Prior to embarking on experience:

• Talk to faculty to agree learning objectives and experiential learning framework
• Presentation to students to give overview of programme
• Follow up presentation to students expressing an interest in getting further involved
• Psychometric testing of each individual and one to one sessions to talk through career possibilities in light of analysis of tests and stated objectives.
• Opportunity for each individual student to express specific areas of experiential interest so their wishes can be incorporated into a bespoke programme for them.
• Individual learning agreements developed and signed by each student, the college and the AWF.
• Full induction materials and linguistic support made available before departure.
• Academic preparation to support the experience and proposed educational programmeas required.

During the experience:

• Individuals/ groups transferred from the airport on arrival to the accommodation
• Induction to programme and cultural and social opportunities on the island
• Introduction to project team and assignment to individual co-ordinator and mentor
• Workshop sessions: Employability skills (CV prep/ interview/ presentation skills)
• Work assignment: transfers arranged (busses are slow and frustrating as well as limited)
• Daily evening group reflection sessions
• Weekly individual sessions with assigned co-ordinator
• Interviews (filmed with full feedback)
• Mentor debriefing session.
• Transfer to airport

Post experience:

• Follow up on interview (s)
• Encouragement to gain further experience either in Tenerife or elsewhere
• Participation encouraged in social networks, newsletters and job opportunities
• De-brief with students and faculty to further develop the programme.
• Continuing support for students on further work experience.

3. Employability and Networking

Educational element has to be seen in context of on-going relationship of colleges with the AWF. The AWF provides free of charge motivational talks to college groups to encourage students to volunteer, for the common good but also to help them to grow as an individual and build their CVs, and provide experiences that will help them to focus on career opportunities.
The AWF also facilitates field trips and builds educational programmes where required around student volunteering. In addition to this the AWF has built a Volunteer Credit programme through which students can generate ‘credits’ to earn the right to volunteer FREE in either Tenerife of Sri Lanka. Activities from fundraising through to sponsored walks, such as The Teide Challenge, to running conservation workshops in local schools, and selling fair trade goods through True Fair. All proceeds go the AWF’s Genesis programme providing funding for some of the poorest communities on the planet and protecting their threatened environments in the process. These strong social goals help individual students ‘step outside’ of themselves and try that bit extra, growing in themselves in the process.
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Over the last twenty years this process has facilitated many hundreds of old volunteers in gaining employment in a number of areas: education (many college partnerships are founded on the ex – volunteers now teaching in that college); conservation; the travel and tourism sector including various sports activities; graphic design and creative media; and various aspects of animal management- teaching, conservation and welfare organisations and zoos. A great many of our ex volunteers have gone on to higher education at undergraduate and postgraduate level with many having gone on to earn PhDs; the organisation has a strong European wide university network that it can draw upon.

4. Key Educational Areas

A. Travel & Tourism work available:

• Guiding on whale watching boats
• Interacting with tourists in visitor centre
• Developing promotional material
• Event management – talks, conferences, fundraising, workshops, festivals…
• Marketing and Sales
• Product development, particularly eco, rural and activity based products
• Children’s animation workshops in hotels and at visitor centre
• Tour leading
• Talks, in hotels and at the visitor centre

Possible learning modules, outcomes and activities

• Preparing for Employment ( Unit 6)
• Marketing Travel and Tourism Products and Services (Unit 5)
• Customer Service in Travel & Tourism (Unit 3)
• Organising a Travel and tourism Study Visit (Unit 27)
• Events, Conferences and exhibitions (Unit 17)
• Responsible Tourism (Unit 12)
• Work Experience in the Travel and Tourism Sector:

B. Animal Management work available:

• Research guiding on whale watching boats. Observing whales & dolphins in their natural environment, photographing dorsal fins and data collection, communicating with tourists.
• Research: collecting, processing and analysing data. Interpreting research finding and developing multi media reports to convey findings to different target markets- public, children, tourists, media, authorities, academia.
• Education: school workshops to create a greater social understanding and empathy for animal’ care needs (an important issue in Spanish society) and general conservation needs particularly surrounding the natural habitat of Tenerife- whales, dolphins, turtles, maring habitats etc; dog training and agility sessions etc.
• Animal Rescue Centres- Dog, Cat, Horse. Caring for animals including veterinary care; animal rescue; dealing with the public; adoption programmes, education and animal therapy programmes.
• Animal based activities: Horse riding, dog grooming, pet stores
• Working in zoos: with animals, on educational programmes, in management and at an organisational level.
• Specialist programmes such as animal therapy for autistic or special needsindividuals.

Possible learning modules, outcomes and activities

1. Understand and Interpret Animal Behaviour and Communication (Unit 13)
2. Understand the Principles of wildlife populations conservation and ecology (Unit 19)
3. Preparing for Employment
4. Work Experience

C. Art & Design and Creative Media work available:

• Visitor Centre- developing conservation and educational materials -posters, leaflets, web, photography etc. to promote conservation messages.
• Developing promotional materials for targeted tourism products-rural properties, walking holidays, activity providers, nature tourism etc
• Resource centre- developing educational materials for use on whale watching boats, in various multi media outlets including social media. – developing teacher resources for the TES website (300,000 +teacher downloads of materials already produced).
• Collaboration with research teams to produce scientific posters.
• Working with conservation groups to produce conservation materials, globally.
• Film making- underwater filming of pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins.- promotional film work for conservation issues- promotional film work for rural, activity and nature tourism providers.
• Web development
• Tourist videos (collaboration with a professional video production company)
• Supporting presentations, mainly on conservation issues
• Illustration of booklets

Possible learning modules, outcomes and activities Please ask for further details

• Work experience
• Working to a Brief in the Creative Media Industries (Unit 5)
• Fundraising for Art and Design Work (Unit 15)
• Management of Art and Design Projects (Unit 17)
• Educating Through Art and Design (unit 19)
• Film and Video Editing (Unit 54)
• Product Design (Unit 94)

D. Sports work available:

• Specialist activity providers through which international courses & qualifications can also be acquired: Diving; Power Boat Skipper; First Aid; Sailing; Horse Riding; Sail Boarding; Trekking; Wind-Surfing/ Kiting . The list is endless. In exchange for work effort we negotiate substantial discounts on all accredited courses.
• Hotel animation: Horse riding, Exercise and Keep Fit; Swimming, Exercise,
• Dancing, Massage …
• Gymnasiums
• Physio-therapy
• Working with activity providers- walking and trekking, dance, diving, paragliding, surfing, sail boarding, wind surfing, quad biking etc

Possible learning modules, outcomes and activities Please ask for further details

• Work experience:
• Outdoor and Adventurous Activities (Unit 10)
• Exercise for Specific Groups (Unit 16)
• Organising Sports Events (Unit 23)
• Work Experience in Sport (Unit 26)
• Principles and Practices in Outdoor Adventure (Unit 29)
• Impact and Sustainability in Outdoor Adventure (Unit 31)
• Environmental Education for Outdoor Adventure (Unit 32)
• Skills for Land-based Outdoor and Adventurous Activities (Unit 33)
• Skills for Water-based outdoor and Adventurous Activities (Unit 34)
• Outdoor and Adventurous Expeditions (Unit 35)

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For further information on the above programmes please contact Ed ed@whalenation.org