Future Foresters Skills Day

Last week, our tutors and year 2 Apprentice Forestry & Arboriculture students traveled to the Royal Forestry Society 2nd National Student Conference entitled "Future Foresters Skills Day" hosted at Shuttleworth College. 

This year's theme is "Addressing skills gaps in the forestry, arboriculture and countryside sectors" with particular reference to the recently published Forestry Skills Plan 2019 - 2024 published by the Forestry Skills Forum.

Students enjoyed indsutry talks from specialist speakers including; Euan Brierley - Associate Forestry Consultant - WSP, Tom Williams - Managing Director at Maydencroft and Becki Gawthorpe - Biosecurity Officer at the Forestry Commission.

The afternoon session saw exhibitors and demonstrations by numerous high profile industry players giving students the opportunity to get hands-on with kit, ask lots of questions and network. Plumpton students were particularly impressed with the state-of-the-art Stihl VR Chainsaw and the Tree Harvester simulator demonstrated by the Forestry Commission in partnership with John Deere.

Plumpton College students entered the photography competition, dispite not taking the winning prize, students had an extremly beneficial day learning about the future of their indsutry. 

Students were able to get their hands on the state of the art Stihl Virtual Reality Chainsaw, as well as a Tree Harvester simulator demonstrated by the Forestry Commission in partnership with John Deere.

Feel inspired? Discover Forestry and Arboriculture courses at Plumpton College.