Teenagers offered training for country jobs

The full-time, year-long placements will be open to 16 to 19-year-olds and will involve learning skills such as dry-stone walling, woodland coppicing and hedgelaying. Trainees, who will be able to gain a bursary allowance, will also work towards an NVQ qualification.

Stephen Carding, placements co-ordinator at the Wildlife Trust for Sheffield and Rotherham, said: "Currently, 16 to 19- year-olds are under-represented in the conservation sector as they tend to be in competition for jobs with university graduates.

"This project aims to redress the balance by providing them with the skills and experience they need to kick-start their careers."

Teenagers will be able to apply to the scheme from January next year and can register their interest by calling 0114 2634335.

Meanwhile, the wildlife trust has also received a grant worth nearly 50,000 from "Biffaward" to continue the work of the South Yorkshire Ponds Project.

Last year the project carried out surveys and restoration work on a number of ponds across the region, enhancing sites that had long been neglected.

The new funding will allow the project to carry out improvement works on a further 17 ponds across Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley. The works will aim to restore some dried-out or silted-up ponds.

Project officer Chris Monk, from the Wildlife Trust for Sheffield and Rotherham, said: "There are a great number of ponds in the South Yorkshire area, many of which are no longer managed, resulting in them silting up and losing much of their value for wildlife.

"This project is helping to conserve and improve a habitat that very important to the biodiversity of the region.

"It will encourage others to look after their ponds and to create new ones."