RMA – The Royal Marines Charity are proud to work alongside our charity partner HighGround, delivering a bespoke Rural Week at Bicton College in Devon for Young Service Leavers that have been unable to complete training at this time.
The Rural Weeks programme at Bicton College has been running since 2017 and to date, Highground has delivered 36 Rural Weeks to over 350 tri-service serving personnel and veterans whose common denominator is that they want to find out more about how to get into the land-based sector. The sector contains varied opportunities for individuals who enjoy hard work in any weather, showing their flexibility, motivation, and willingness to learn.
We are very proud of the MoU we signed with RMA – The Royal Marines Charity last year and the Young Recruits Week is a continuation of our work together and represents all that is good about collaboration.”
Anna Baker Cresswell – Founder and Executive Director of HighGround
We are extremely grateful for the fantastic support of Jacobs, who partly funded the Young Recruits Rural Week. The week included visits to, forestry plantations, farms, tree surgery and local estates to meet subject matter experts and find out about working in their areas of the land-based sector as well as classroom presentations and advice about Emotional Intelligence, CV’s and interview techniques.
A snapshot of the week:
Tuesday 3rd May – Visits and talks from:
- Intro & Land-based Training and Education – Chris Shepheard
- Role of a Warden with RSPB – Toby Taylor
- Forestry Commission – Haldon Forest with Josh Stephen
- Agriculture Industry – Tidewell Barton with Pete Wastenage
- Evening talk with Peter Broom
Wednesday 4th May
- Wildlife Ranger Clinton Devon Estates with Tom Garner
- The Landscaping Industry with Stephen Ensell Education officer at BALI
- Forest School – The Outdoors Group with Neil Martin
- Evening talk from former recruit Alec Bain – Life after Lympstone
Thursday 5th May
- Forestry at Clinton Devon Estates with John Wilding MBE
- Construction Plant and Engineering Technology with Andy Daw
- Arboriculture with Hi-Line, Matt Evans and Kirsty McNicol
- Rural Estate Management with Ian Bowler
Friday 6th May
- Emotional Intelligence with Sean Foley EQ Commando
- Careers Advice and Guidance from the RMA – The Royal Marines Charity’s Employment and Education Team.
For more information on our Employment & Education support, please click here.