Skills Shortage Continues

Young people with a passion for the environment are being urged to train as foresters and told they are pretty much “guaranteed a job”. Students are even dropping out of their degrees after being offered full-time roles by firms “desperate” for staff. Source: BBC

Industry leaders said a workforce crisis threatened the UK’s ambitious tree-planting targets to fight climate change. The Welsh and UK governments said they were investing in skills and training.

A new project at Bangor University in Gwynedd aims to tackle common misconceptions about the industry and attract a younger and more diverse workforce.

Students in the Inspiring Future Foresters group plan to take to social media and visit schools to tell their own stories.

“Anyone who hears about forestry thinks it’s just about big men with chainsaws cutting down trees,” said masters student Mercy Babatunji, but she insisted there were many other career opportunities.

The 25-year-old from Ondo state in Nigeria hopes to work as an urban forester after finishing her studies, promoting and managing trees in towns and cities.

“We all know of the grievous effects of climate change – governments around the world need more people to study forestry and get into this field,” she said.

Katie Somerville-Hall, 24, from Reading, claimed that students had been told on their open day that “everyone just walks into a job afterwards”.

“It’s a growing sector with a lot more jobs than there are people with the expertise to do them – which is a massive bonus,” she said.

“I really like the idea of hopefully having a positive impact on a landscape and environment over a long time frame,” said Beth Scott, 26, from Stirlingshire, who has already lined up a job with a forestry firm back home in Scotland once her dissertation is handed in in September.”

The students acknowledged they had “fallen” into forestry, having studied other courses at undergraduate level and felt there was generally “a lack of awareness” about the subject as an option for young people.

Bangor is one of only three universities across the UK training foresters to degree level, while provision at FE colleges was described in 2021 as being “at crisis point” in a report by leading forestry organisations.

“We anticipate that there are currently around 500 unfilled professional positions in the UK and probably a further 10,000 support positions,” said Dr Tim Pagella, who runs the undergraduate forestry program at Bangor University.

The workforce is ageing too by 2030 about 20% of current foresters are set to have retired.

“I think it is a crisis for us, when we think about climate change, trees are one of the first things we talk about and yet the profession that delivers trees for us is struggling to recruit people.”

He said there had been instances of students going on work experience placements and not coming back: “They’ve gone straight into a job with a nice car, a nice salary and a woodland.”

But the sector suffered from an image problem that needed tackling, he said, and urged more discussion about forestry “a hugely broad discipline” in the school curriculum.

Governments have committed to speed up tree planting to help soak in carbon emissions, with a UK target of 30,000 hectares of new woodland being created every year by 2025.

Dr Pagella said it was “undeniable” those goals were at risk due to a shortage of professional foresters coming through the system.

The organisation which looks after health and safety in forestry also has concerns about the UK’s workforce shortage.

At the Royal Welsh Agricultural Show in Llanelwedd, Powys, this week, Forest Industry Safety Accord (FISA) has launched a new bursary to support students on professional forestry degree courses.

Director Sean Reilly claimed the industry had not been regarded as a “professional” career choice in the UK in recent decades and that needed to change.

“In most European countries a forester is seen as someone with a high level of skill and playing a major role within a local environment or community,” he added.

A Welsh government spokesman said the forestry sector had “a crucial role to play in the environmental and economic future of Wales.”

“The work we are doing as part of our timber strategy and net zero skills plan looks at how we can ensure we have the right skills and the right training for the future,” he said.

A UK government spokeswoman said it was spending £4.9m on projects to support forestry education and skills under the Nature for Climate Fund.

“This includes a new professional forester apprenticeship programme at the University of Cumbria, the first degree-level forestry apprenticeship that has been offered in the UK,” she said.

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