Volunteer - Centre for Alternative Technology

Volunteering at CAT

We need more changemakers. Volunteering at CAT gives you the chance to develop skills and support our work offering practical solutions and providing hands-on learning to help create a zero carbon world.

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Volunteers were responsible for starting CAT more than 50 years ago. Today they still form an invaluable part of the CAT family.

Our volunteers help us to manage the site throughout the year, contributing to the upkeep of our gardens and woodlands and giving a helping hand in other key areas.

Volunteering with us is an excellent opportunity to gain new skills and work experience, explore this beautiful area of Mid Wales and Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park, and meet a range of interesting and friendly new people all working together on solutions to the climate and biodiversity emergency.

There are a few different ways to volunteer

We offer a range of different volunteering opportunities:

Residential six-month volunteer positions, staying on-site at CAT.
Volunteering for shorter periods if you live locally or are able to arrange your own accommodation.
Regular volunteer days, for example joining us for a day each week.

Working as a volunteer

Most of our volunteers join our Estates Department, working in our Gardens or Woodlands and Water teams. You can read more about these roles below.

However, if you have other skills you would like to offer to CAT, we’d be delighted to consider applications for other areas. For example, previous volunteers have helped out in digital media, marketing, fundraising, visitor engagement, mail order and short courses.

Gardens Volunteer

Come and live and breathe sustainability. While here, you'll get the chance to work with and learn from our experienced gardens team, meet inspiring and interesting people, and become an integral part of what CAT does.

Woodlands and Water

Explore woodland management, learn valuable skills and have fun working alongside our woodlands and water team to help manage our woodlands, water and sanitation systems and make improvements around the site using our natural resources.

Fundraising Volunteer

Volunteer with CAT’s Fundraising Team and help us provide skills and knowledge to respond to the climate and biodiversity crises.

Learn more

Volunteer in the garden

Apply to be a volunteer at CAT

Day volunteers

If you live locally or have arranged your own accommodation nearby and are interested in becoming a regular day volunteer, an application is not need. To get in touch about day volunteering, please email volunteering@cat.org.uk.

Learn more about day volunteering

Monthly Volunteering Day

On the first Tuesday of every month, CAT will be welcoming volunteers to come along and lend a hand in our gardens and woodlands. We are excited to welcome people from all walks of life. There is no need to be an expert, all that’s needed is a passion for sustainability and being out in nature!

This is a great opportunity for those seeking to learn new skills, meet like-minded people and work together on solutions to the climate and biodiversity emergency.

Previous volunteers have taken part in a whole host of activities, working alongside our residential volunteers on projects that range from dead hedging in the woods to weaving a live willow structure in the organic gardens.

To book a place on our Monthly Volunteer programme email volunteering@cat.org.uk to get in touch with our volunteering manager Holly Owen.

Six-month residential volunteers

When applications are open, please fill out the six-month residential volunteer application form and return to volunteering@cat.org.uk by the deadline given.

Following the application deadline there is a shortlisting stage, during which the various role supervisors invite a maximum of 16 people to join a trial week here at CAT.

Learn more about being a six-month residential volunteer

Key dates

Applications for the winter 2025/2026 placement is now open.
Deadline for applications is 3 August 2025.
The trial week for this placement will be Monday 1 – Friday 5 September 2025
The winter placement will run from 13 October 2025 – 13 March 2026

Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to accept long-term volunteer applications from under-18s or from overseas nationals. We apologise for any disappointment this may cause.

Please email completed applications to volunteering@cat.org.uk

Please email enquiries to volunteering@cat.org.uk

Download the 6 Month Volunteering Application Form

What our previous volunteers have said

As a mid-life career changer, coming to live and work at CAT as a residential volunteer has indeed been life-changing. It’s helped me put down roots in a new part of the world after two decades in London, and I now plan to study here and develop a more nature-focused career. All the site staff and volunteers look out for each other, it’s almost like being part of an extended family. I’ve loved my time at CAT and am excited about what comes next.

Joe Downie, Woodland and Water volunteer (October 2021 – September 2022)

CAT allowed me the space and time to disconnect and just be, but ultimately reconnect to nature and myself. My time volunteering gave me more clarity on where I wanted to go in life, but more importantly who I wanted to be. I’m forever grateful for the experiences I had and the people I met along the way. Diolch CAT…. for being a space of regeneration, of nature and the human spirit.

Julia Robertson, Woodland and Water volunteer (October 2021 – March 2022)

The CAT staff and volunteers really believe in what they are doing - something you don’t find in many work places. It’s a really inspiring place. A springboard for so many people in so many ways, that’s why so many volunteers wish they could stay.

Rachel Solnick – Gardens Volunteer

Contact us

Need more information or some help? Don't hesitate to contact us and a member of our team will get back to you.