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Museum Gallery Assistant
Location: Museum
Days: Saturdays & Sundays
Role type: Volunteering (unpaid, supervised, learning-focused)
Age: 16+
About the Role
The Museum Gallery Assistant role is a public-facing volunteering opportunity based in the museum galleries, helping visitors engage with exhibitions, displays, and collections.
This role is ideal for anyone who enjoys talking to people, sharing knowledge, storytelling, and creating welcoming visitor experiences. As a Gallery Assistant, you will help bring the museum’s displays to life by guiding tours, answering questions, and explaining exhibits to visitors of all ages and backgrounds.
You will work alongside museum staff and other volunteers in a supportive environment, developing communication skills while helping visitors have an enjoyable and informative visit.
This is a volunteer role, designed to provide experience, learning, and contribution. Volunteers support museum activities but do not replace paid staff or hold employee responsibilities.
What You’ll Be Doing
Under staff guidance and supervision, you may assist with:
- Welcoming visitors to the museum galleries
- Giving informal guided tours to individuals, families, and groups
- Explaining displays, objects, and exhibitions in an engaging and accessible way
- Answering visitor questions and encouraging curiosity
- Supporting family activities, talks, or events when required
- Helping maintain a friendly, safe, and inclusive gallery environment
No prior guiding or teaching experience is required—training and support are provided.
What You’ll Learn & Gain
This role is especially valuable for developing public engagement and communication skills. You will gain:
- Experience interacting with the public in a museum setting
- Confidence in speaking to groups and explaining complex ideas simply
- Knowledge of museum exhibitions and interpretation
- Customer service and visitor experience skills
- Insight into careers in museums, education, outreach, and heritage
This role is CV-building, particularly for those interested in education, science communication, museums, tourism, or public engagement.
Time Commitment
- Volunteering takes place on Saturdays and Sundays
- A regular commitment is encouraged to allow meaningful learning
- We understand school, college, university, and exam pressures
Accessibility & Inclusion
The Natural Sciences Museum is committed to being inclusive.
We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds and will make reasonable adjustments wherever possible. Please let us know how we can support you.
How to Apply
To apply:
- Send an email to education@nsm-uk.org
- Attend an informal introduction or chat
- Complete any required paperwork
- Begin your volunteering experience in the museum
If you have questions about this role, please contact Brian Andres.
Curation Assistant
Location: Museum Collections
Days: Wednesdays
Role type: Volunteering (unpaid, supervised, learning-focused)
Age: 16+
About the Role
The Curation Assistant role offers a behind-the-scenes opportunity to support the care and management of newly acquired specimens within the Natural Sciences Museum’s collections.
This role is ideal for anyone interested in museum collections, curation, conservation, natural sciences, or how specimens are documented and made accessible for scientific research. You will work closely with museum staff, learning professional collections management practices while contributing directly to the long-term accessibility and care of the museum’s collections.
This is a volunteer role, designed to provide experience, learning, and meaningful contribution. Volunteers support museum activities but do not replace paid staff or hold employee responsibilities.
What You’ll Be Doing
Under staff guidance and supervision, you may assist with:
- Boxing and rehousing newly arrived specimens using appropriate materials
- Labelling specimens accurately according to museum standards
- Uploading specimen information to the museum’s collection database
- Checking and recording basic collection data to support scientific access
- Organising collection storage areas and materials
Tasks are adapted to experience level, and full training and instruction are provided.
What You’ll Learn & Gain
This role is especially valuable for building experience relevant to museums, science, conservation, and heritage careers. You will gain:
- Hands-on experience with museum collections curation
- Understanding of how specimens are documented and managed in museum databases
- Insight into how scientific collections are made accessible to researchers
- Strong attention-to-detail, organisation, and data-handling skills
- Exposure to careers in collections management, curation, and museum science
This role is highly CV-building, particularly for students considering museum studies, conservation, natural sciences, or heritage-related pathways.
Time Commitment
- Volunteering takes place on Wednesdays
- A regular commitment is encouraged to allow meaningful learning
- We understand school, college, university, and exam pressures
Accessibility & Inclusion
The Natural Sciences Museum is committed to being inclusive.
We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds and will make reasonable adjustments wherever possible. Please let us know how we can support you.
How to Apply
To apply:
- Send an email to research@nsm-uk.org
- Attend an informal introduction or chat
- Complete any required paperwork
- Begin your volunteering experience in the museum
If you have questions about this role, please contact Brian Andres.
Replica Workshop Assistant
Location: Museum / Museum Laboratories
Days: Saturdays
Role type: Volunteering (unpaid, supervised, learning-focused)
Age: 14+
About the Role
The Replica Workshop Assistant role is a fun, hands-on volunteering opportunity focused on assembling 3D-printed fossil replicas into full mounted displays.
This role is perfect for anyone who enjoys model making, practical projects, creative problem-solving. No technical or engineering experience is required. Think of it as a friendly, supervised model-making club, where you work as part of a team to bring fossils to life.
You’ll work alongside museum staff and fellow volunteers, learning how replica skeletons are constructed for display, education, and outreach.
This is a volunteer role, designed to provide experience, enjoyment, and learning. Volunteers support museum activities but do not replace paid staff or hold employee responsibilities.
What You’ll Be Doing
Under staff guidance and supervision, you may assist with:
- Assembling 3D-printed fossil replicas into displays
- Joining, aligning, and fitting replica bones accurately
- Using basic hand tools and fixings (training provided)
- Following mounting plans and diagrams
- Supporting the preparation of skeletons for display, handling, or education use
Tasks are adapted to experience level, and no prior technical skills are needed—full instruction is provided.
What You’ll Learn & Gain
This role is ideal for building confidence with hands-on projects in a relaxed, supportive environment. You will gain:
- Experience assembling replica fossil remains
- Insight into how museums create and use fossil replicas
- Practical problem-solving and teamwork skills
- Improved spatial awareness and attention to detail
This role is CV-building for anyone interested in museums, education, creative making, or natural sciences and is equally suitable if you just love dinosaurs and building things.
Time Commitment
- Volunteering takes place on Saturdays
- A regular commitment is encouraged to allow meaningful learning
- We understand school, college, university, and exam pressures
Accessibility & Inclusion
The Natural Sciences Museum is committed to being inclusive.
We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds and will make reasonable adjustments wherever possible. Please let us know how we can support you.
How to Apply
To apply:
- Send an email to info@nsm-uk.org
- Attend an informal introduction or chat
- Complete any required paperwork
- Begin your volunteering experience in the museum
If you have questions about this role, please contact Harry Loukes.
Fossil Lab Assistant
Location: Museum Laboratories
Days: Mondays & Tuesdays
Role type: Volunteering (unpaid, supervised, learning-focused)
Age: 18+ (adult volunteers)
About the Role
The Fossil Lab Assistant role offers a rare opportunity to work behind the scenes in the Natural Sciences Museum’s laboratories, supporting the care and preparation of real fossil specimens.
This role is ideal for anyone curious about palaeontology, conservation, museum science, or how fossils are preserved for research and display. You will work alongside museum staff, learning professional techniques while contributing to the long-term care of the collection.
This is a volunteer role, designed to provide experience, learning, and contribution. Volunteers support museum activities but do not replace paid staff or hold employee responsibilities.
What You’ll Be Doing
Under staff guidance and supervision, you may assist with:
- Basic fossil preparation tasks
- Cleaning and stabilising specimens using appropriate tools
- Supporting conservation work following established procedures
- Organising lab spaces and materials
- Observing and learning professional conservation techniques
Tasks are adapted to experience level, and full instruction is provided.
What You’ll Learn & Gain
This role is especially valuable for building experience relevant to science, museums, conservation, and heritage careers.
You will gain:
- Hands-on exposure to fossil care and conservation
- Understanding of museum laboratory practices
- Experience working with scientific collections
- Strong attention-to-detail and manual handling skills
- Insight into careers in palaeontology, conservation, and collections care
This role is highly CV-building, particularly for students considering STEM, museum studies, conservation, or heritage pathways.
Time Commitment
- Volunteering takes place on Mondays and Tuesdays
- A regular commitment is encouraged to allow meaningful learning
- We understand school, college, university, and exam pressures
Accessibility & Inclusion
The Natural Sciences Museum is committed to being inclusive.
We welcome volunteers from all backgrounds and will make reasonable adjustments wherever possible. Please let us know how we can support you.
How to Apply
To apply:
- Send an email to conservation@nsm-uk.org
- Attend an informal introduction or chat
- Complete any required paperwork
- Begin your volunteering experience in the lab
If you have questions about this role, please contact Megan Linford.