Yorwoods have been awarded a two year forestry sector training contract from the regional Landskills training development fund. Landskills is administered by Lantra on behalf of Yorkshire Forward the Regional Development Agency for Y&H region. Yorwoods have been awarded £100,000 of RDPE funding to roll out a series of training programmes for the forestry sector.
Programme Aim
To increase the level of woodland management activity across Yorkshire and the Humber’s small, farm and amenity woodlands to bring about economic, biodiversity and landscape benefits and to increase the volumes of timber entering the developing woody biomass markets.
The project aims to increase the skills-base of farmers, farm-forester, landowners and forestry businesses to enable them to better manage their woodland, diversify their economic base away from agricultural production and grow their businesses. Furthermore, the improved skills will enable farmers to deliver woodland management options of the Higher Level Environmental Stewardship scheme.
Programme Objectives
- To provide access to new skills and information for those working in agriculture to enable them to better manage their woodlands for economic and environmental benefit.
- To provide demand-led training to those seeking formal skills qualifications at a practical level, and those wanting bespoke best practice guidelines on a range of woodland management activity.
- To promote and increase the uptake of Higher Level Scheme.
- To promote courses and provide information to those in the land-based sector in order to enhance their awareness of opportunities in the woodland industry.
- To provide locally-based training opportunities to increase access to training in isolated rural areas and ensure it is a good fit with the range of training available from other training providers in the area.
- To increase the quantity and quality of timber available from the Region’s woodland for both large and small scale markets, in particular the growing woodfuel market.
- To increase the skills and knowledge base of the emerging woodfuel production and supply sector
- To increase the area of new woodland planting in the Region.
- To promote and co-ordinate an ongoing programme of networking events in the region to give beneficiaries opportunities to learn from each other.
- To promote the training opportunities to women working in agriculture and offer equal opportunities to all beneficiaries.
- To obtain feedback from customers to ensure course quality is maintained
The programme will be run by a collaboration of regional woodland initiatives with Yorwoods and the South Yorkshire Forest Partnership taking the lead roles. This training programme will form part of a larger, region wide RDPE business support and facilitation programme. Wood Enterprise Yorkshire will be a region-wide programme of wood-based/forestry business facilitation, supporting forestry and other wood based businesses. The key aims of the programme are to increase the level of woodland management activity across Yorkshire’s farm, estate and amenity woodlands, to bring about economic, biodiversity and landscape benefits, to increase the volumes of timber entering the biomass supply chain and to increase the skills-base of farmers, farm-foresters, landowners and forestry businesses to enable them to better manage their woodlands, diversify their economic base away from agricultural production and improve their businesses.
Overall targets
Target for total number of training days: 760
Estimate total number of beneficiaries: 160
Total number of training courses: 65
Total number of qualifications: 130
Further Information
Further information will be available on these pages very soon. If you have any queries please contact Will Richardson at the Yorwoods office.
