Search for recruits to conserve the Dales

The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust announced yesterday that it is hoping to sign up new recruits for a project aimed at providing the skills and experience necessary to pursue a career in countryside management.

The move is also aimed at tackling youth unemployment as well as a decline in the number of workers entering the countryside management sector which has created to a shortage of skills necessary to maintain the landscape in the Dales in the future.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s head of ranger services, Alan Hulme, said: “This is not just a fantastic opportunity for local young people, but also for employers.

“We have had a number of apprentices over the last 10 years and they bring a fresh outlook and ideas to our work. Staff also benefit by passing on their own skills and experiences in the knowledge that the countryside will be in safe hands for the future.”

The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust has already co-ordinated successful training programmes, but has now launched the new scheme which will run for the next two years and is backed by the national park authority, the Garfield Weston Foundation, Lord Swinton’s Charitable Trust and the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.

Work experience will be provided for 16- 24-year-olds with employers including private contractors, large estates and public environmental bodies with the chance to gain formal qualifications in subjects such as environmental conservation, forestry, horticulture or gamekeeping.

The apprentices will also have the chance to complete training courses to gain certificates in chainsaw and brush cutter use, off-road driving, habitat surveying and tree planting.

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