Skills sharing is a vital part of our work to ensure community orchards are thriving for decades to come.
We offer:
Certificate in Community Orcharding
We deliver the UK’s only accredited course in managing community orchards: the Certificate in Community Orcharding (CICO). This hugely popular course is taught online and in-person (currently in London, Scotland and Bristol). It is helping to create a community of passionate, qualified orchardists to join us in our national revival of the orchard tradition! Many graduates have gained employment in horticultural roles.
Forest Gardening Award
Forest gardening is a food production and land management system based on replicating woodland ecosystems. Trees and plants are replaced by fruit and nut trees, bushes, shrubs, herbs and vegetables. Integrating Forest Gardens (also known as ‘Food Forests’) into our model, helps community orchards become more climate-resilient. Our Level 2 online course is delivered in partnership with The Agroforestry Research Trust.
Workshops for all
Our general workshops are open to everyone and often free! You can learn specific skills, such as pruning, grafting, pests and disease awareness. See our Events page for listings (these are seasonal, so keep checking throughout the year).
Orchard Leader Training
We train Orchard Leaders, the volunteers taking on responsibility for the care and harvest of the trees and orchard space. They attended our dedicated training day on technical orchard maintenance skills and on how to lead and engage others in a community orchard project. We keep in touch with our orchard leaders regularly to make sure the trees are healthy, and provide a follow-up visits.
Orchard Mentor Training
To spread our knowledge and expertise even further we have a team of Orchard Mentors across the UK. These are community volunteers who are willing to share their knowledge and experience of orchard maintenance with community orchard groups.
Our courses receive fantastic feedback. Here are just some of the comments from previous participants:
Thanks for a great pruning class! I was impressed with your knowledge of the subject and the way you organised the class. It was much more hands on than previous pruning classes I’ve taken, and the hands on part is essential for learning.”
“It was the most instructive and useful day, as well as being a lot of fun. Really well run and informative.”
“Jo’s knowledge always astounds me every week. Her teaching style weaves in different ways of teaching: facilitation is amazing.”