The forestry ambassador programme is an initiative to promote forestry as an attractive career option in second level schools.

At the moment, 11% of Ireland is forested and these maturing forests support a vibrant, export-oriented, forest products sector which employs more than 12,000 people. Ireland’s rapidly growing forest industry offers a wide range of diverse career opportunities including forest operations, sales and marketing, environmental protection, technology development, recreation and road construction. Forecasts show that this industry is set to double in size over the next decade, so it will need a hugely increased number of trained foresters.

To prepare for this projected increase in demand for foresters, several groups within the industry, such as the Society of Irish Foresters, Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine, forestry industry representatives and academia, have all come together to form the forestry careers group. Its aim is to promote forestry as a career option in second level schools around Ireland under its forestry ambassador programme.

This programme will recruit and train teams of experienced foresters who will visit local second level schools and make presentations to the senior cycle students, which highlight the many career options available in Ireland’s expanding forest industry.

Forestry ambassadors are experienced forestry professionals who will deliver short presentations to the students outlining the science of growing forests, the many and varied career opportunities on offer, videos of a forester’s day-to-day work followed by class discussions on their career paths.

Information on the educational opportunities and qualifications available will also be provided.

These presentations are designed to last for 35 – 40 minutes and will be followed by a question and answer session to give students an opportunity to discuss the day-to-day work of a forester.

For further information on careers in forestry, please see www.careersportal.ie where the forestry page features videos and interviews with a variety of forestry professionals from right across the forest industry.

Alternatively, please contact the Society of Irish Foresters (info@soif.ie) for more information on the forestry ambassador programme or to arrange a visit from a local forestry ambassador team.

Gerry Murphy is President of the Society of Irish Foresters