An Agroforester is involved in forestry and agriculture because these areas can support each other.

They focus on the habitat and consider how climate change and over-farming affect our natural environment.

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Useful Skills To Put On Your CV:

• Self-belief skills – self-belief isn’t just confidence but perseverance. You’ll be presented with environmental challenges where you may have to try several approaches to find one that works best for biodiversity.
• Good communication skills and teamworking skills – you’ll usually be working as part of a team, and sharing your findings with an organisation or client.
• Good problem solving skills – a creative approach to problems is often needed in forestry work.
• Good organisation skills – forestry often means doing field work in the great outdoors, but there’s a lot of paperwork involved too. You could be analysing data or making reports on your recommendations for environmentally sustainable action.
• Self-management skills – you’ll usually receive training from your employer, but it’s up to you to have a keen interest in forestry and the passion to top up your skills and knowledge.

How Do You Get Skills?

Vocational qualifications and work experience will help you build these skills over time.

Build Your Skills With the FREE Young Professional Programme

School and college

Whichever type of forestry role you specialise in, it will be useful to have at least five GCSEs (or the equivalent) with passing grades of 9-4 (A to C) including English, maths, at least one science, and possibly geography.

You will also benefit from having at least two A-levels with good passing grades. These will help you get into a junior job where you can build skills and knowledge with training, or apply for a degree. You could also apply for a relevant apprenticeship.

You can also study towards a T Level in Agriculture, Land Management and Production, which has a work placement built into the course programme.

University degrees and graduates

If you think university is the right choice for you, some useful related degrees include:

• Agriculture
• Agroforestry
• Ecology
• Environmental science
• Geography

Forestry Apprenticeships

An alternative route is to take your first step into a forestry career with an apprenticeship. Some options in the UK include ‘Professional Forester’, ‘Forest Craftsperson’ and ‘Trees and Timber’ apprenticeships.

You’ll get to build skills and knowledge whilst earning a salary, and gain a free qualification. You can study apprenticeships from Level 2 (entry level) to Level 6/7 (degree level).

Training

Finding courses that allow you to build your forestry skills are a great option.

Whether they’re online, part of a full qualification, or a one-off training course, they’re perfect if you’re starting out in your career.

Did you know? Lantra provide training and assessments across the UK and Ireland that build your forestry skills and most importantly, your health and safety knowledge.

Starting out in forestry

To be an Agroforester, knowledge of agriculture, forestry, ecology and land management will be essential. Working towards a degree-level education may be useful for this career.

What next?

You’ll progress in your career as you grow your skills and experience, especially in research and analysis. Some Agroforesters choose to specialise in consultancy work.

Work Experience Tips

It can help your application if you have previously done work experience or volunteering in a conservation or forestry environment.

Examples of relevant work experience include:

• Work shadowing (even if it’s just for a day)
• Work placements in a company
• Industry placements on a degree course

Work experience tips

Volunteering Tips

There are lots of opportunities for forestry volunteering across the UK. Visit these organisations to find out more:

• The Conservation Volunteers
• National Trust
• Wildlife Trusts

Volunteering tips

Where could you work?

As an Agroforester, the work you do will depend on the time of year and what activities are being undertaken in each season.

You’ll work in the office (which could include a laboratory) and outdoors when required.

Example daily job responsibilities

• Research plants and animals
• Collect data and samples, and analyse them in a laboratory
• Make recommendations for managing wildlife populations
• Practical work, such as planting trees
• Review plant and wildlife populations to plan how to restore and protect them
• Administrative work, such as creating proposals for funding and grants

To find jobs for young people in this role, search on jobs boards for early career roles with these words in the title:

• Agroforester
• Woodland Officer

If you’re interested in forestry, you might also like to explore a career as a:

• Forestry Worker
• Tree Surgeon

These websites might be able to help you find forestry experience or a role that’s a good fit for you:

• Lantra
• The Conservation Volunteers
• National Trust
• Wildlife Trust
• Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM)
• British Ecological Society

These employers all carry our Youth Friendly Employer Mark. We work with them to make sure that they are providing great support and opportunities to young people.

Click on an employer to find out more about them and the youth-friendly opportunities they offer, from work experience and apprenticeships through to graduate schemes.