Internships at Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden – 12 month contract

We currently have 3 intern placements available in March 2022. The deadline for applications is 27 March 2022 but earlier submissions may get priority. Contracts will start once approved by SAASTA, we are aiming for a contract start date in May 2022. After 27 March you are welcome to submit an application to be considered for later placements, probably in early 2023.​

These are 12 month intern contract positions, partly funded by SAASTA or AgriSETA. Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden is an academic and teaching botanical garden, also open to the public. We house a diverse flora from all over the World but SUBG specifically pursues Cape and SA conservation objectives and is a member of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI):

• Advocacy and education
• Ex situ population conservation and restoration of a selection of extreme risk Cape or SA plant species, with a particular focus on bulbs, and intention to grow orchid expertise.
• Specialist research and conservation collections, e.g. Cape Oxalis
• Building plant conservation capacity.

Routine intern work in the garden includes:

• Care and propagation of the collections, including daily tasks like watering and weeding.
• Development of interpretation and communication materials
• Helping with conservation work & new displays, including plant collection and propagation.
• Maintenance and updates of the collection database.
• Management and interaction of the public including occasional shop duty and plant sales.
• Hosting educational visitors – school groups, garden clubs, interest groups.
• Various ad-hoc, hands on tasks associated with the garden and general horticultural practice.
• Weekend duty of 2 days total per month

There are opportunities to contribute to our strategy and mission in diverse areas, so we are looking for passionate graduates who may have different strengths, any of:

• Specialist horticulture and growing – passion and interest in growing, propagation, and plant care, with a willingness to research and record protocols for our diverse collections ranging from tropical orchids to cape bulbs and everything in between.
• Science communication – a passion for telling natural history stories that educate about our natural world and make the case for conservation. Ideally this means you have a conservation and ecological understanding of the Cape and SA landscape, and ability to create compelling content for interpretation materials, and online and print communication.
• Threatened species work, including helping with developing our strategy, and undertaking collection, propagation, collection management, population genetics, and display development.
• Developing, interpreting, and caring for our growing useful and medicinal plant collection.

Ideally we would like Honours, Masters, M Tech or similar graduate from any of botany, conservation/ ecology, advanced horticulture, or science communication. Demonstrable experience in plant growing, even on a hobby basis, strong knowledge of plant diversity and identification and/or good communication skills would all be useful. A love for plants and being a nice person is essential, we value an inclusive, happy and fulfilling workplace and experiential learning environment.

Please submit your CV with full contact details, subject line “SUBG Intern Application" to subg@sun.ac.za, with a short covering letter motivating how your interests, strengths and track record might support our focus areas.                            

Past SUBG Interns        ​​                                

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