Students splitting wood in a coppicing lesson

Location: Talgarth, Powys

Study Time: 3 days per week

Course Length: 1 year from September to July

 

Cost: Tuition is fully funded for anyone aged 16+, no matter your qualification level, as long as you are a UK resident. You will just need to ensure you can cover your own costs of living for the duration of the course.

Minimum Age: 16 years old (no maximum age)

Equipment Requirements: Warm waterproof clothing and shoes for working outdoors, and chainsaw safe trousers, boots, helmet, and gloves.

Our Coppicing and Greenwood Trades NVQ will help you to develop skills and knowledge for a successful and rewarding career in the trees and timber sector.

A hands-on vocational course designed to equip you with practical skills in traditional woodland management and greenwood crafts. This unique programme allows you to work directly with the land, learning environmentally conscious methods of managing woodlands with minimum impact, improving biodiversity, and honing your craft skills with sustainable greenwood use.

 

Website
https://blackmountainscollege.uk/study/further-education/coppicing-and-greenwoo…

What is Coppicing?

Coppicing is an ancient form of woodland management that uses nature's ability to regenerate continually to harvest wood from a living tree. It involves periodically cutting trees down to ground level which promotes vigorous regrowth, creating a sustainable supply of wood which can be used to produce both products and energy.

Coppicing is also fantastic for increasing the lifespan of trees, improving tree health and promoting biodiversity!

What will I learn?

We will resurrect old coppice woodlands by restoring them, and plant trees to create new ones! Modules covered include the following, each will have a particular focus on sustainability:

  • Sharpen and maintain edged hand tools
  • Carry out maintenance of chainsaw and cutting system
  • Cut, process and extract coppice
  • Identify tree species and their properties
  • Fell and process trees up to 380mm
  • Control pollution incidents
  • Process coppice materials and greenwood products
  • Plant trees
  • Cross-cut timber using a chainsaw
  • Monitoring and maintaining health and safety
  • Prepare and produce charcoal
  • Hedgelaying

Within this NVQ, students will also undertake a Chainsaw Maintenance and Felling Training Course, providing you with an additional, sought-after licence.

Why study Coppicing & Greenwood trades?

You will study in beautiful and unique woodland settings. This course is ideal for students who want to further their experience of working in forestry to increase their ability and confidence, or for anyone with a passion for nature, craft, and sustainability.

After this course, students may be able to:

  • Use this qualification towards entry to the BMC undergraduate course, BA (Hons) Sustainable Futures: Arts, Ecology and Systems Change
  • Move onto a Level 3 course or higher in Green Woodworking and Coppicing, Forestry and Arboriculture, or Land Management
  • Use transferable skills for employment opportunities in the trees and timber sector
  • Start a career as a self-employed or salaried Tree Surgeon, Woodworker, Forestry Worker, Woodland Conservation Officer, or Countryside Ranger

Applications for a September 2025 start are now open! Apply early via our website to secure your spot. You will need to complete a short interview with our friendly team.

Further Education Prospectus - Black Mountains College_3.pdf20.59 MB

Related Organisations

Connected Content

Woodland

There are around 3.2M ha of woodland in the UK. This is set to increase substantially over the coming years due to a range of policy, social, environmental and commercial drivers, including Net Zero, Biodiversity Net Gain, ELMs, Local nature recovery plans and carbon trading.

Conservation

Although the term management implies direct manipulation, the practice of wildlife conservation and management includes efforts aimed at preserving or restoring rare species and their habitats and indirect manipulation of wildlife populations through modification of habitat or resources. From: Encyclopedia of Ecology, 2008

Land Use

Land use refers to the way that land is used and managed for various purposes, such as agriculture, housing, industry, and recreation.

Land Management

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Black Mountains College

A unique college in and around the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, Wales, to create a future where nature and humans thrive. BMC focuses on the challenge of our times: how to build a fair and just society within safe planetary boundaries. We believe in education that empowers people to build resilience in the face of the climate and ecological crisis. Our approach is built on rethinking traditional learning to foster the skills, creativity, and systems thinking needed for a more sustainable future. Our countryside-based campus is a living classroom, with access to biodiverse landscapes that inspire and challenge our students to connect deeply with nature.