Thursday 20th August 2020
Venues in Redbridge
Please note that our start date depends on Covid 19 restrictions being lifted.
Come join our brilliant orcharding course and learn everything you need to know about designing and managing community orchards. You will benefit from our expert team of experienced orchardists who have already helped 75 students gain the Certificate – the equivalent of an A level qualification. The course starts in August 2020 and finishes in July 2021 giving you a wonderful opportunity to learn a wide range of skills required across the various orchard seasons. You’ll also be joining a supportive network of orchardists by becoming part of our community.
This level 3 training is free of charge, in exchange for 3 days of volunteering with The Orchard Project or Forest Farm Peace Garden. However, you must be able to answer ‘yes’ the following six questions:
- Are you able to make all the dates below? You must be able to attend the whole course to be able to get the Certificate.
- Can you show that you are unemployed or ‘economically inactive’ and do you plan on getting a job or attending another training course after this one? About 1/3 of previous course participants found this course helpful in finding paid employment or further training.
- Do you have the right to live and work in the UK?
- Do you think you could handle a level 3 course? It’s similar to doing an A level and you will be assessed on 11 pieces of homework. However, we can be flexible here; e.g. if it’s not for you, you could attend without being assessed for the Certificate.
- Are you able to do basic tasks on a computer? You need to be able to write, save and email a document, and be able to do internet searches. N.B., there is a training day to boost your skills on the 24th September.
- Would you be really keen to learn loads about orchards, including how to design your own one?
If you can answer yes to all of these questions, please register your interest on Eventbrite and we will be in touch with you.
Economically inactive or Unemployed
We’re really keen for this training to help people get a job, ideally in the community food growing sector. In fact our funding is based on this, so it’s important to us that you are genuinely interested in getting work or going into a higher level training course once you’ve been with us.
Economically Inactive: You are neither employed nor unemployed. It includes people who want a job but have not been seeking work. You will not be receiving benefit and are supporting yourself financially through a third party such as family members or savings. Some reasons why you might be economically inactive are: you’ve retired early, you look after children, you’re a lone parent, you are long-term sick or you’re looking after the home. If you are economically inactive you will need to get a verification from a third party or family member.
Unemployed: You are without a job, want a job, and have actively sought work. You must be registered with a government agency such as the DWP or job centre. You will need to show some kind of proof of this such as a recent letter or screenshot of your Universal Credit statement.
Course details
Every day is from 10am – 4pm. Please make sure you arrive promptly for each session. Some dates may need to be rescheduled because of pandemic restrictions. We will aim to complete the course in this time span and we will try to stick with Thursdays for our training days. For most of the course there is only one session per month but October 2020 and May 2021 have two dates.
| Dates | Topic | Covering | Venue |
| Thu-20-Aug-20 | Summer pruning of trained forms | Get practical experience of pruning trained forms | Valentines Park |
| Thu-24-Sep-20 | Digital Skills | Learn how to create, save and send a piece of work, insert tables and images into documents and move images off phones or the internet. | to be confirmed |
| Thu-08-Oct-20 | Orchard history, tree lifecycles, physiology, tree identification | Learn about the historical context of orchards, important details of how plants work and some tree identification. | Forest Farm Peace Garden |
| Thu-15-Oct-20 | Orchard tree care and harvest | Understand how to care for mature fruit trees and harvest apples. | Hainault Lodge |
| Thu-19-Nov-20 | Soil and soil food web (community of organisms living in the soil) | Understand why feeding the soil is so important. Covers soil science, the soil food web, promoting fertility. | Forest Farm Peace Garden |
| Thu-10-Dec-20 | Group work | Working well with other people can be tricky and it’s critical you know how to avoid the common pitfalls. | Hainault Lodge |
| Thu-21-Jan-21 | Tree planting | Learn how to plant, stake and guard trees so they’re likely to survive and thrive. | Forest Farm Peace Garden |
| Thu-18-Feb-21 | Winter pruning (formative and maintenance prune) | Learn how to formatively prune young trees and maintenace prune established trees. | Forest Farm Peace Garden |
| Thu-18-Mar-21 | Spring grafting of fruit trees | Learn how to make new treesby whip and tongue or cleft grafting. There are a limited number of people who have this practical skill, so it’s well worth learning. | Forest Farm Peace Garden |
| Thu-22-Apr-21 | Resilient orchards | Learn how to make sure your orchard is resilient to the effects of climate change. What plants and features should you include? | Forest Farm Peace Garden |
| Thu-06-May-21 | Orchard survey and baseline maps | Generate a site survey and baseline map | Hainault Lodge |
| Thu-20-May-21 | Orchard design – plant selection | Now we’ll focus on the plant choice. We will cover rootstocks, plant properties and spacings | Forest Farm Peace Garden |
| Thu-10-Jun-21 | Biodiversity, pests and diseases | Learn why promoting biodiversity and tree health in your orchard will help address most of the pests and diseases you’ll be identifying and learning about. | Forest Farm Peace Garden |
| Thu-01-Jul-21 | Maintenance pruning plums and chip bud grafting | Learn an additional way of grafting trees and how you summer prune the fruit trees in your orchard. | Forest Farm Peace Garden |
Why do we have the selection criteria?
We’re very pleased to be receiving funding from the European Social Fund and the government (via Groundwork) to help people find ways into work or into more advanced training – and we have set some ambitious targets for this. If you are looking for a way to be more employable in the community food sector and have the makings of a tree geek, this course could be for you!
BOOK HERE
