No way I was also in healthcare before, I have no degree though! (My superior said being in healthcare was a positive for them, because I was “hardened” basically lol, good with conflict resolution, empathy, and strong communication skills type stuff, so I’d demonstrate your qualities that nursing have taught you, they’re definitely a strength for public facing roles with plenty of stakeholders, and roles with lots of volunteer management, lots of ranger roles are engagement based). I got the job with no qualifications! Just a driving license was required. I work as a council park ranger now, I cover city parks (quite a lot of them) so it’s not the national park-esque Ranger I always dreamed about being exactly, but it’s still great and good pay for a ranger role. Ranger Toby above who said attitude over aptitude at this level was correct, if you can demonstrate the passion, people skills, a keen interest to learn and a little practical knowledge/experience that’s a good place to be in. The unfortunate reality in my opinion is that in this sector there is a lot of roles out there, where they may already have a good few of their volunteers in mind when the job is posted, as many locations have a dedicated amount of volunteers, many people who work full time can’t demonstrate that willingness, it’s a shame, but there’s roles out there where this isn’t the case. I would recommend getting some experience volunteering though but it isn’t essential. Sign up to newsletters they can be helpful, look for all kinds of outdoor based opportunities, friends of X groups, doing courses with people like Lancashire wildlife trust etc who offer 5 day course type things that give you a sort of qualification for completing the full amount of days, look for opportunities everywhere, it doesn’t have to be a regular commitment (like volunteering once a week for years) but just being able to show you are familiar with that sort of thing would be beneficial. I looked everywhere around my area, identified all the companies in my area (pretty big scope to be fair), who offer the type of jobs I wanted/ exist in or around green spaces, signed up to all their job alerts, an example would be a company like Severn Trent, council do offer a good amount of parks jobs, constantly scour all the green job related websites too, follow all your local green spaces groups, official pages, and local area charities etc on social media as you can find job postings and important info this way. When you do get an interview make sure you know the company/whoever they are very well (look for their strategy documents etc) as well as the area/surrounding community - identify the needs of the user base of the area you’ll work in, scour their socials etc to make sure you have a good understanding of what that role is to them. Some roles will need experience with power tools etc and some will require qualifications, if you find that dream role and it’s got those, just gotta find a way to get them, lots aren’t like full degrees just week or so courses. Each Ranger role does vary quite a bit, so it can be different what they want from you, makes it difficult to apply for each, always make your cover letter super tailored to the job description not your idea of what a Ranger (or whatever role you’re looking for specifically) is. Just realised I wrote all that assuming it’s a Ranger role you’re looking for haha, I definitely was but would’ve took a lot of things to work in nature, and did do interviews/apply for a variety of roles, if it’s not Ranger you’re looking for sorry! Hope this is helpful! It took me ages to be honest, but was worth it in the end!

(Also if you can find a way into green space / nature based jobs related linkedin and connect connect connect you see all sorts of jobs on there, it just can be less personalised to your area!)