RFS hits major milestone as Junior Forester Award gets 100,000 children engaged in woodlands
The Junior Forester Award inspires children and young people to learn about their local trees and woodlands. It aims to nurture the next generation of foresters, addressing the growing skills shortage across the sector.
Press release
Over 100,000 children and young people have participated in the Junior Forester Award, the flagship learning programme led by the Royal Forestry Society (RFS).
The Junior Forester Award gives children and young people the practical ability to assist in woodland management in their schools and local communities. Having reached tens of thousands of young people, the programme is playing a vital role in nurturing the next generation of foresters, inspiring passion for trees and providing an insight into a career in forestry.
This comes at an important time for the forestry sector as a critical skills shortage poses a significant risk to the industry and the country’s woodland ecosystems. It is, therefore, more important than ever to get children interested in trees and woodlands from an early age.
Forestry does not currently feature in the national curriculum which means few school leavers are aware of it as a career path. The Junior Forester Award aims to fill this gap, getting children and young people excited about forestry and giving them a taste of what a job in the sector might look like.
According to a 2021 report by the Forestry Skills Forum, 10% of the total workforce are set to retire by 2025. By 2030, that figure could be as high as 20%.
In the absence of a sufficiently skilled workforce to fill these positions, the government’s tree-planting and forest cover targets are unlikely to be met over the coming decades. Implications for the nation’s homegrown timber industry would also be felt. The UK is currently the world’s second highest net importer of timber and there is little chance of this changing without a future generation of trained and knowledgeable foresters.
Becky Wilkinson, RFS Learning and Outreach Manager said: “The Junior Forester Award was created to give children a chance to become foresters by learning about and caring for the trees in their schools and local communities. We know that all children thrive when given the chance to learn outdoors, making a real difference to the environment that they live in. We are thrilled that so many individuals, schools and community groups have embraced the opportunity that this Award provides and will know now the crucial role that foresters play in looking after our trees, woods and forests.”
The Junior Forester Award has the added advantage of helping create a structured learning environment in an outdoor setting. Outdoor learning is increasingly being recognised for its sizeable benefits for children’s mental health.
2021 research from Natural England revealed a compelling connection between outdoor experiences and emotional wellbeing among youth. The study found that the vast majority of young people, approximately 85%, reported feeling very happy in natural environments. The research also highlighted that kids who spend time outdoors on a weekly basis tend to report substantially higher levels of personal happiness.
Jemma Cuthbert, School and Community Outreach Officer at the RFS said: “It’s wonderful that over 100,000 children have taken part in the Junior Forester Award so far and we hope many more register in the future. As part of my role at the RFS, I was lucky enough to observe a JFA session in a school’s grounds last month. It was the class’s final one out of the six, and at the end they were asked to name their one favourite part of the whole award. All of them had enjoyed it so much they just simply couldn’t stick to one favourite activity; they kept listing their second, third favourites and so on. It had obviously made a big impression on them.”
The RFS offers free resources, including a handbook for programme leaders, booklets for each participant and certificates. The six core modules are designed so that no specific qualifications are needed to lead the course, making the programme accessible to any school, community or family.
All that is needed is access to trees, preferably at least six different species. These do not need to be planted as a woodland, they can be around the school grounds, in a hedgerow or nearby in the local community.
The six core modules are:
- Managing Risk
- Tree and Plant Identification
- Woodland Habitat Exploration
- Building with Wood
- Woodland Management
- Becoming Forestry Ambassadors
The Junior Forester Award materials are available for England and Scotland. A Welsh version is due to be released in 2025.
Follow the link to register and receive the free Junior Forester Award resources.
