Rural skills opportunity for young people in Highland Perthshire

Trust partner recruiting for outdoor training course as part of the Heart of Scotland Forest Partnership

Young people seeking a career in the outdoors are being encouraged to apply for a rural skills course in Highland Perthsire, being run by the Highland Perthshire Communities Land Trust (HPCLT), one of the partners in the (Heart of Scotland Forest Partnership.)

The Dun Coillich Rural Skills course has been running since 2016 and is currently looking for applicants for its 6th course. The course offers a mixture of certified and non-certified training and work experience and aims to give a broad and solid training base relevant to a variety of rural land based industries. Previous trainees have gone on to work in forestry, farming and conservation amongst other things.

The course is based at Dun Coillich Community Land, which is owned and managed by the Highland Perthshire Communities Land Trust and adjoins the John Muir Trust's land at (Schiehallion) on the Aberfeldy to Tummel bridge road.

The land at Dun Coillich has been in community ownership since 2002 and is currently managed as an ecological restoration project. Some 250,000 native trees have been planted on the site since its purchase and a native woodland is now emerging on the hill.

The course runs part time for 20 weeks (1 or 2 days a week and usually on a Wednesday) and is open to anyone aged 16-25 and based in the Highland Perthshire area. Applications are required by 13 February 2019, with the course starting on 20 February 2019. Anyone who is interested should contact Heather Hamilton in the first instance by email at projectofficer@hpclt.org

Image credit: Kevin Lelland. Looking across tree regeneration at Dun Coillich Community Land towards Schiehallion.