Forestry Sector Skills Plan 2025 – 2035

To grow the capacity of the forestry workforce we need to attract new entrants and retain existing
forestry workers.

Promotion of forestry and forestry careers is key to achieving this. We need to increase awareness of the diverse range of job roles and interesting pathways that exist in the forestry sector.

Promotion will highlight new careers, progression and specialisation, making it easier to enter and remain within the forestry sector. Targeted communication and careers campaigns will help to achieve this, aimed at allied sectors, military leavers, volunteers, learners and education institutions. The Forestry Commission and Defra will also work to promote forestry and forestry careers across other government departments to ensure forestry is included in key strategic documents and funding decisions.

To establish a dependable stream of new talent entering the sector, and to create the opportunity for existing forestry workforce employees to upskill, we need to improve the quantity and quality of forestry training and education.

We will focus on providing accessible high-quality provision at technical, supervisory and professional levels. We will work in each core area, further and higher education, work-based learning and short-course technical training to provide fit for purpose training at every stage of a forestry worker’s career.

Reports show the forestry sector is below the average across the economy in terms of gender and ethnic diversity.

If the forestry sector is to meet present and future challenges and opportunities, we must recruit people from diverse backgrounds, who bring different capabilities to fill new, emerging, and traditional roles. To attract a wider range of people, we need to do more to promote
forestry as an inclusive place to work that offers varied and interesting career opportunities that can benefit nature and tackle the climate emergency.

Promoting membership to professional bodies and providing members access to the support and training they provide is key to upskilling the forestry workforce and landowners.

Professionalising forestry jobs will also support efforts to attract new entrants to forestry. It will also help existing forestry workers in their career development whilst fostering a sense of pride.

The promotion of professional membership at technical and professional levels will support upskilling by creating channels of communication across the forestry sector, increasing CPD and sharing best practice. This will help prepare the sector for future challenges including climate change. Professionalising the sector will support the promotion of forestry and associated career pathways, by clearly displaying the highly skilled roles which are present.

Landowners have an important role in increasing tree planting rates. Their understanding of the forestry sector is central to managing and creating woodlands and forests. The creation of a course for landowners will help to provide clarity on the woodland creation and
management processes.

Improving labour market intelligence and provision intelligence on the forestry workforce is necessary if we are to take effective action to bolster labour capacity and address existing and future skills gaps. Working together we will improve the reliability and frequency of data on the forestry workforce.

Some workforce data is available including a Defra funded report published in October 2024. Read the UK Forestry Workforce & Skills Research – KT0201 report here.

This highlights how the workforce is changing, its potential, and suggests actions to take to promote the growth and upskilling of the forestry workforce. However, there are significant limitations to existing data which excludes key data sources, and the impact is limited due to the irregular intervals they are produced at. For example, data on the barriers facing forestry micro-enterprises is often limited. By building a comprehensive understanding of the workforce and improving the reliability of the data, there will be stronger understanding of the challenges and opportunities. This will inform effective actions to upskill and support growth in workforce capacity. Creating a regular flow of reliable data on the forestry workforce will provide a quicker and better understanding of how the workforce is changing, potential challenges and the impact of actions taken. This will underpin good policy decision-making.