By Debs Hoy, Green Skills Co-ordinator

On summer solstice, graduates from Avon Needs Trees’ first ever Woodland Skills training course wrapped up six-months of career development with cake, certificates and conversations about individual successes, challenges and plans going forward.

Of the 13 graduates, 5 of them have gone into jobs in the green sector so far, and 5 have secured funding for further training in horticulture and arboriculture related short courses.

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. One graduate said, 

“I have left every session on this course feeling properly rejuvenated. I am massively impressed by all the projects and people we have met.”

The success of our pilot training programme is largely down to collaborators who have offered workshops, volunteering opportunities and career information across a wide range of jobs; sharing knowledge about tree care, woodlands and landscape management.

Each month, the group was able to visit a local wooded landscape, learn about the kind of work that goes into looking after it, and take part in a practical task to help build skills. 

We tried coppicing with Forest of Avon Trust. We toured Stoke Park with Bristol City Council and helped to remove some invasive Cherry Laurel. At Great Avon Wood, our own 113 acre site in Pensford, we explored the site with our Head of Woodlands and Impact, Alister Wynn, learning about the stages of woodland creation and getting stuck into tree planting a new Hazel coppice. 

Then, as winter turned to spring, Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) taught us how to test the stream at Great Avon Wood for invertebrates, showing us how pleasingly healthy it is and explaining the importance of riparian trees for natural flood management. Bristol Natural History Consortium introduced us to Festival of Nature which included a wealth of volunteering opportunities. 

We rounded up our learning with a fabulous tour of ancient and veteran trees at Tyntesfield, hosted by National Trust and spent the afternoon with a ranger caring for their orchard trees. In our final session together, the group tested a new woodland trail for Avon Needs Trees, thinking about the importance of interpretation and access for community engagement.

These monthly outdoor learning experiences have been backed up with employability workshops, regular 1-1 check ins and online resources that have helped participants to boost their CV’s, practice for interviews and apply for live jobs. Support from Bristol City Council’s Inclusive Pathways employability programme has been invaluable in signposting people towards new opportunities. Another highlight of the programme was the opportunity to spend a day shadowing a member of staff at either Avon Needs Trees or Forest of Avon Trust. This has given real-life insight into a day-in-the-life of the kind of jobs people might like to go into.

For those keen to combat the environmental crisis or who understand first hand the wellbeing benefits of working outside, a free training programme like this is much in demand. We had over 50 applications for the first course. For both courses in 2024, Avon Needs Trees is focussing on the following priority groups: people who are unemployed, people age 18-25, those who have faced barriers to access or career development and those who have previously volunteered for our charity. The course is designed for people who are not yet working in the green sector but intend to undertake paid work (or further training leading to work) within the next few years.

This is in response to a parliamentary report called Green Jobs task force findings which found that the green sector is one of the least diverse in the UK. With high targets to increase forest cover across England and Wales, the forestry sector is crying out for a larger, more diverse pool of skilled employees. Woodland Skills is a good step towards bridging this skills gap locally, helping to support sector resilience across the West of England. Feedback from our graduates shows its success: “This course is incredibly valuable for helping people to enter an area of employment which can otherwise seem closed.”

With 84.6% of our first graduates moving into local employment, training and new volunteering opportunities, Avon Needs Trees will soon be looking to recruit the second cohort of trainees. The second Woodland Skills Training course will build on the first, with a few different workshops (yet to be announced) and a hybrid format to support a variety of learning styles and time commitments. The next Woodland Skills training course will run from November 2024-May 2025, to find out when applications open, you can register your interest here. More information about the programme can be found here.