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Countryside Management at Hadlow College
Training for a career in a Park Ranger Service
In a recent edition of RANGER magazine (issue 71), Mark Wallington of Moulton College examined the range of training courses available in land-based colleges today. Continuing on from this, Phil Bolton explores how Countryside Management courses are delivered at Hadlow College and why it is important for industry professionals to become fully involved with this process.
Professionals influence training
Hadlow College is a Countryside Management Skills training centre in Kent. There
are 25 students on the Countryside Management programme at Hadlow and it is
vital to ensure that the skills and knowledge taught to them is soundly based
on what the industry requires. This evaluation is far from simple, the fluidity
of our industry means one needs to be constantly alert to changes in government
policy, changing job descriptions and demands on rangers in the field.
The ‘Industry Liaison Committee’ at Hadlow includes tutors and professionals from the industry in Kent and the South East. They review what each student ‘should know’ when he or she embarks on a career in the land-based sector. In this way industry professionals discuss and influence the delivery of training in countryside management at Hadlow College. In these meetings we focus on the key question:
“ If you were interviewing someone for a post, what would you expect them to know and what would you expect them to be able to do?”
Work Experience
The National Diploma and the National Award are broken down into units which
are ‘subject’ specific. These are further sub-divided into ‘Core’
and ‘Specialist’ topics. The core units must be studied by all students.
One of these core units is the Industry Placement. Liz Webb (a ND year two student
) gives us an account of the value of her placement.
Work Experience by Elizabeth Webb
As part of my 2nd. year ND in Countryside Management I have been required to achieve 400 hours experience in a relevant organisation in the countryside sector. My work placement was with a local farm which may seem a strange choice for someone who is not an agricultural student. However, I chose this placement in order to develop my estate skills and learn more about the new Environmental Stewardship Scheme (ESS).
The ESS replaced the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and offers farmers a more flexible and accessible approach to entering an agri-environmental scheme. In my local area I would estimate that two thirds of the farms are considering entering the scheme by the end of 2006. The ESS includes three main categories:
My placement farm is currently beginning the process of starting at the Entry Level with a view to moving to the Higher Level. One key aspect which interested the farm was the range of environmental options available to reach the desired points level required by DEFRA. My job involves examining these options, discussing which ones are possible to implement and then working out the points based on the size of the farm and number of options that can be implemented on each hectare.
Options being considered include: enhanced hedgerow management, different seed mixtures for areas of set-aside, management of woodlands located on the farm and various buffer and cultivation strips. The options I am finding most exciting are the ones which are aimed at specific species such as skylarks and beetles – which DEFRA hope will slow the rate of population decline in both species.
The farm manager uses me as a consultant and has recently given me more responsibility by increasing the area he wants me to include in the scheme. Farmers are starting to see the benefits of environmental management, and DEFRA, by creating a scheme with a shorter contract, more options and the opportunity to tailor the scheme to the farm, has attracted many farmers who would otherwise not have joined.
I have recently completed my 400 hours experience, but the farm has asked me to help manage and implement their Environmental Scheme. I believe a work placement, such as mine, gives students a valuable insight into the state of British farming and the environmental management schemes available. I have learnt about the real nature of farming today and the conflicts and compromises which are at the centre of countryside management in Britains’ rural areas. At the end of my placement I feel I will have a wider understanding of what is required to work in the countryside and have gained valuable transferable skills, which I hope will be useful in my future career.
Thus for Liz, the work placement is opening doors into the industry I would like to see more placement opportunities developed in our industry via CMA members.
Fundamental Skills
One of the popular specialist study units at Hadlow is ‘Classification
and Identification’. All to often in the profession, rangers are called
upon to survey and identify flora and fauna on their sites. Whether for management
plans, protection designation or for public information it is fundamental basic
Ranger skill.
‘Tourism’ and ‘Interpretation’ studies are also essential in this modern age. People are acquiring more disposable income, more leisure time and increasingly better access to the countryside than ever before. The issue of ‘carrying capacity’ in the countryside is a fundamental issue for rangers but once in the countryside, there needs to be information about where they are and what they are looking at.
Practical skills are also highly important. The work carried out at the college is real and not simulated. Students produce real management plans and accurate prescriptions of works. Phase 1 and 2 habitat surveys are also carried out which utilises their “ID” skills.
Conclusion
Hadlow College is just one land-based college engaged in training tomorrows
professionals in our industry. It is vital that the industry of today takes
a pro-active role in guiding and supporting them. CMA members can help by joining
a college industry liaison committee or by guest speaking to students. It is
part of your own Continuing Professional Development which will broaden your
profile whilst helping to guide the students.
Colleges for their part can help you with ‘bodies on the ground’. That survey you don’t have time to do, or that scrub that’s a nightmare. Take a proactive role in the development of training young people in your area and give your local college a call.
Take a lead, and help develop our industry for tomorrow, today.
Phil Bolton
Lecturer/Course Manager: Countryside Management, Hadlow
College
South East Regional Chair & CMA Training Adviser.