Thomas Gould

The Environmental Conservation Apprenticeship was truly worth going for in my opinion. I have worked in a variety of locations, gaining a diverse set of skills and it was exactly what I was looking for when searching for an outdoor practical role.

Growing up, I didn’t have many opportunities to work in the outdoors, although I always wanted to. The pressure of university, college and theoretical forms of learning was always there, but in my opinion, I learn practically and through hands-on physical experiences and therefore this Work-based apprenticeship role was extremely useful and exactly what I was looking for.

My favourite element of the apprenticeship was just working with my hands. I didn’t really get the opportunity through different jobs I’ve had over time to do that, so it’s nice to learn skills from different traditions, to be able to give what I’ve learned back to other people who want to learn.

I learnt a diverse set of skills working both with Eryri National Park and the National Trust Rangers in Ogwen. With the National Trust Rangers, I learnt a lot of new outdoor conservation skills and practices such as pathway maintenance, dry-stone walling, fencing and many other conservation maintenance jobs that you see out in the landscape. Alongside that, the skills I learnt with Eryri National Park were more “behind the scenes” of conservation.

There was a lot of work to be done in the tree nurseries, watering, weeding, taking tree orders across the National Park in addition to a lot of maintenance around the woodland pathways, searching for trees that had come down during storms, and maintaining those sites of which many of us love to go and visit.

One new skill I’ve enjoyed learning the most is tree identification. Sadly, I think we’ve been removed slightly as a society with our native trees and roots and so learning these names, their meaning and their origins has been extremely interesting and fun to do! I’ve enjoyed gaining a greater connection to the land and the landscape through this. I believe more organisations should have apprenticeships available and that they are vital in the cogs of preserving local knowledge, especially in conservation and nature. Everyone has different learning styles, so learning in this way, with a balance between hands-on practical work and reflective writing, is extremely beneficial to both the apprentice and the organisation.