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Work exchange
Increase your confidence, work on your English, save some money, boost your CV, meet great people and live like a local in idyllic St Ives
If you’re looking for a paid role, please visit our JOBS page.
Participating in a work exchange at Cohort is a fantastic way to have fun, increase your confidence, improve life and work skills, meet other people, save some money, boost your CV and experience life in one of the best seaside spots in the UK.
We offer a cultural and skills exchange. In exchange for your time we will provide you with accommodation in the centre of St Ives, Cornwall.
Our positions don’t require you to be a rocket scientist, but whichever one you choose we do expect you to be reliable and friendly and to approach your role in a hardworking, responsible and professional manner.
In this section:
Work Exchange roles | About Cohort | Work Exchange & Cohort | Code of Conduct | Paid employment | About St Ives | FAQs | Apply
Work Exchange opportunities
We are a year-round educational residential centre offering accommodation and itineraries for schools (primary and secondary), colleges and universities. We open to the public for 10 weeks of the year outside of term time – Easter and summer holidays.
Work Exchange positions run from February through to the end of November every year
We’re now accepting applications for the 2024 season
Work Exchange roles
We have two different roles available at Cohort.
Please note:
Our minimum requirement is that you commit to stay for at least 3 months.
Due to our work with educational establishments all successful work exchange applicants must be a UK resident or have a valid UK work visa and pass all DBS (criminal record) checks to work with us. Successful applicants must produce a satisfactory DBS check before your confirmed start date and before you can reside in our staff accommodation.
For those with a non-UK passport you must have a valid work visa which we will ask to see before you arrive, and again on arrival.
Cohort is committed to safeguarding and ensuring the welfare of children and young people and expect all those who work with to share this commitment. The suitability of all prospective work exchange staff will be assessed during our recruitment process in line with this commitment.
Night Support (sleeping) & Housekeeping (1 role)
2 x night support shifts and 2 x morning shifts
Start time: 9/10pm 2 nights/week and 10am 2 x housekeeping (morning) shifts a week
Are you a night owl? Want to sleep for free accommodation but don’t mind a bit of responsibility and the odd wake-up call? But also can’t decide whether you’d prefer the housekeping shift?
Have both! We require someone who can do two on-call (sleeping) shifts a week in addition to two morning housekeeping shifts.
We require a confident, friendly, professional staff member who is over the age of 21 years with good communication skills who is happy to be on-call and respond to the odd guest contact overnight.
As a responsible accommodation provider, we provide our guests with 24/7emergency access to a member of staff. Sleeping in private staff accommodation you will be contactable in case a trip leader (or guest) requires a member of staff. This is a sleeping shift (with no expectation for staff to stay awake) and includes an evening clean of communal washrooms.
In addition to two on-call shifts you will also join our housekeeping team for two morning (housekeeping) shifts a week. So you’d get all the benefits of the night shift (private accommodation) with the morning shift (sociable).
Please download the detailed role description below:
Housekeeping (morning) role
Up to 3hrs/day. 5 days a week. 10am-1pm
We need reliable and happy people to be part of a 3 or 4-person team who will be in charge of room changeovers, room services and cleaning.
We can be a busy place with a educational groups arriving and leaving every 2 – 4 days. Some days there’ll be 0 changeovers on others it could be 40!
We expect to provide our school groups with well-presented and clean rooms and so we’re pretty strict with the housekeeping as it’s a very important aspect of the service we offer our schools.
Please download the detailed role description below:
About Cohort
We are a 60-bed educational accommodation provider located in the centre of St Ives, with 4 beaches and 40+ restaurants, bars and cafes on our doorstep.
We are an educational trip accommodation centre hosting approx 70+ school, college and university trips a year (mostly art, geography, geology, activity and eco-trips). We love schools. They are a great bunch to have in the building and teachers are great people to work with.
We provide B&B, half-board or full-board residential accommodation, and we support trip organisers to create unique and exciting itineraries.
For 10 weeks of the year, outside of term-time (when schools are off and we have availablity) we open to members of the public and offer budget (hostel-style) holiday accommodation to the town visitors: families, walkers, backpackers, couples and solo travellers.
Cohort is housed in an old Wesleyan chapel. We provide 4, 6, and 8-bed dorm-rooms and private rooms, all with shared washroom facilities.
Work Exchange and Cohort
We are a responsible business and pride ourselves on treating all of our staff fairly and conscientiously; in return we expect certain qualities from our work exchange team members. You must be thoughtful, dependable and friendly and above all reliable, hardworking and be able to work as part of a team.
We ask you to work for approx. 15 hrs/week which we feel is fair in exchange for free town centre accommodation in our shared staff dorm room and the opportunity to live-in one of the UK’s most exciting seaside resorts. Your hours and shifts are fixed and organised in a way so that you can find paid work in St Ives. Part of you being with us is to experience living in St Ives and our positions allow you to make the most of our beautiful town, and immerse in our lifestyle, culture, fesitvals and annual events.
‘Cohort’ means ‘a group of people with a shared experience’ – and this is what you would become part of: a team of invaluable people all coming together for an enriching, fun and positive experience in St Ives.
Code of conduct
Our staff code of conduct exists to ensure the safety and enjoyment of your time here, as well as promoting a safe and positive environment for everyone staying with us.
In addition to safeguarding the welfare of our younger guests the code of conduct also ensures that staff members work together in harmony.
The code of conduct also includes acceptance of adhereing to our safeguarding policy. The triage of our code of conduct, safeguarding policy and DBS checks demonstrates our responsibility towards the safety of all children, young people and vulnerable adults who stay with us.
Please download and read our code of conduct.
Paid employment
For those who wish to earn money while working with us there are plenty of paid positions available in the town.
St Ives has an abundance of bars, cafes, restaurants and shops so finding paid employment is pretty straightforward: Just come armed with your CV and a smile. We can assist you to find work through our network of contacts or simply by pointing you in the right direction.
Please be aware however that if you do find paid employment it has to work around your shifts with us. We will not change our shift patterns to suit a job. We are your priority and any job accepted cannot interfere with your role with us. Jobs are easy to find in St Ives; accommodation is not.
About St Ives
Situated on the North coast of West Cornwall St Ives is just 20 miles from Lands End in the South West region of the UK. St Ives was originally a small fishing village which progressed to an international centre of modern art in the 1950’s and 60’s and on to become the premier seaside resort it is today.
There are over 60 galleries in St Ives including the Tate, Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden, St Ives School of Painting and the Bernard Leach Pottery Studio; it is also home to phenomenal number of restaurants, pubs, bars and cafes.
St Ives has four sandy beaches and they lend themselves brilliantly to a wide variety of water sports from stand-up paddle-boarding to surfing; Cornwall is the UK’s surf mecca with many surf spots in and around St Ives. If that’s not your thing then St Ives is a great place for hiking, exploring and relaxing.
FAQs
In exchange for working with us we will provide you with a bed in our (mixed) staff dorm room. In the room we provide all linen (except towels) plus fridges and tea/coffee making facilities.
There is a fully equipped, self-catering kitchen plus a lovely, large shower block close to the staff room. You can also help yourself to tea and (fresh) coffee in the main lounge.
We have superfast WiFi, a TV area, communal lounge, table football, private courtyard, storage for bikes, surf boards and wetsuits, laundry facilities (washing machine costs £1/£2 a wash) and a small cafe. You can see a list of our facilities here.
You are responsible for your own food and general living expenses.
There is loads to do – from water sports through to stunning coastal walks, gallery hopping, art classes, sightseeing, yoga and cycling. See more here.
Our work-for-accommodation positions fill up quickly, especially over the summer. As soon as you know you’d like to stay longer come and talk to us and we’ll do our best to extend your stay. It is subject to availability however and won’t always be possible.
You can volunteer with us until the end of our season (November).
We expect a minimum stay of three months. Anything less and it is not worth us training you up in your position. We do find that the longer you stay with us the greater your experience of St Ives. At 3 months+ you can really immerse yourself in the town and get to know our great little community. Plus, the added benefit of finding a job here is that it opens up your social calendar!
However, if you can only stay for a slightly shorter time its always worth contacting us as we may have gaps in our calendar.
You can only gain paid employment if you have a valid work visa for the UK.
We love accommodating schools as teachers are a great bunch to work with. Most schools take exclusive-use of the building and group sizes can range from 20 – 55.
With the smaller group sizes it can sometimes feel like there is no one in the building, with the larger groups it can feel like a herd of elephants has just entered. Primary school groups tend to be a bit noisier as primary pupils are full of energy and excitement. However, the majority of groups tend to go out for the day and so the building is usually at its busiest in the morning (for breakfast) and in the evening (evening meals and downtime).
If there is ever any issue with noise then the teachers are always on hand to deal with.
Yes. There are lots of paid opportunities in St Ives. Just come armed with your CV and a smile and you’ll pick up a job in no time. There are approx. 40 bars, restaurants and cafes in St Ives plus plenty of retail shops.
Working is also a great way of immersing yourself in the town, getting to know the locals and experiencing St Ives as a resident. There is a great summer season worker’s community in the town and you’d soon get to know a lot of the other staff in the town pubs, bars and restaurants.
Just remember that if you do find paid employment it has to work around your shifts with us. We will not change our shift patterns to suit a second job. We are your priority and any job accepted cannot interfere with your role with us. Jobs are easy to find in St Ives; accommodation is not.
Yes. We offer you a bed in a 6-bed mixed, staff dorm room. Each bed has its own privacy curtain, light and socket. The staff room also has fridges, tea/coffee and toast facilities with a self-catering kitchen located next door. Staff have full access to all the building facilities whilst working with us.
Please note that the staff dorm room is a mixed-sex dorm room so decide whether you would be comfortable with this before applying.
Yes, but only if you have a valid work visa for the UK. We will need to check your Right to Work ID before you arrive and once you have arrived.
Work exchange staff are one of our most valuable assets and we cannot operate Cohort without them. Having a work exchange program at Cohort enables us to meet awesome people from all over, and at the same time it gives people the opportunity to experience life in St Ives for short periods of time.
It is also difficult to recruit staff from St Ives itself as there aren’t enought people to staff all the accommodation, bars restaurants etc – something you will realise when you arrive and search for job…there are loads of them!
Apply
If you’re interested in a work exchange position with us then please get in touch.
Email Dave on team@stayatcohort.co.uk with your CV, introducing yourself and briefly answering the questions below:
- Why would you like to work with us?
- What do you bring to the team?
- Have you worked in an educational setting before?
- When are you available and for how long
Alternatively fill in the form at the bottom of this page.
Please note that the staff dorm room is a mixed-sex dorm room so decide whether you would be comfortable with this before applying.
If you do not reside in the UK or are a non-UK resident you will need to have a valid work visa to work with with us.
Applicants will only be considered who have responded in the way we have asked, so please read through everything carefully.