A six-week "Countryside Skills" course starts in January for unemployed people interested in working in the environment and countryside management sectors.

The course, which starts on Tuesday 10 January, has been developed by community interest company Running Deer and is funded through Devon County Council’s Natural Capital Challenge Fund (NCCF), which was created to stimulate the county’s post-Covid recovery.

It is one of six projects funded through the NCCF to support job and skills creation in the natural capital sector, while improving and safeguarding the county’s environment.

The course will be delivered from locations near Moretonhampstead, with some practical sessions on Dartmoor.

It will cover a number of subject areas including practical training in environmental conservation, woodland management, hand tool use and maintenance, establishing and protecting habitats, woodland and field surveys and tree planting.

Councillor Rufus Gilbert, Devon County Council Cabinet member for economic recovery and skills, said: “It’s fantastic to see these practical skills being taught in such a vital sector. It’s more important than ever that our countryside and environment is well cared for and well managed. Hopefully this Countryside Skills course can help participants to carve out a new career for themselves.”

Jo Winterburn, managing director of Running Deer, said: “Our Countryside Skills project is providing opportunities for so many people who are facing barriers to work, which is exactly what the Nature Capital Challenge Fund was intended for. This course is enabling people to train in countryside skills and gain valuable qualifications, and it’s great to receive positive feedback that it’s giving them a purpose and drive again.”

The course is suitable for participants over the age of 18 and is available to people who are:

• unemployed workers from the leisure, tourism, food, or farming industry who have been displaced by the Covid-19 pandemic;

• aged between 18 and 24 and not in education, employment, or training (NEET);

• aged 25 and over and have been unemployed and actively seeking work for more than 12 months;

• struggling with other barriers to work such as living in rural isolation, mental or physical health difficulties;

• part of a resettlement programme from the armed services.

Participants in the scheme could gain qualifications in First Aid in the Workplace (Level 3), Health and Safety training (Level 2) and Chainsaw License to Practice 974 & 976.

The course times (10am to 3pm) have been designed to coincide with timings of the regular 359 Country Bus from Exeter to Moretonhampstead for those who don’t drive. Timetables can be downloaded here. Arrangements can be made to collect students from the bus station in Moretonhampstead and transported to the course locations.

The Natural Capital Challenge Fund supports the wider aims of Team Devon’s Economic Recovery Prospectus and the Devon Carbon Plan; boosting the local economy while realising Devon’s Net Zero ambitions.