Job Introduction
We are Forestry England.
We live and breathe forests.
Job title – Plant and Seed Technician Apprentice
Salary - £23,732
Contract type – Fixed term appointment (2 years, with the potential but no guarantee of extension or to be made permanent)
Hours – 37 hours per week
Vacancy closes - 23:58
Join us. We're foresters, professionals and experts. We are a passionate team who love to share our enthusiasm and want to make a positive difference for you and the environment.
Together, we’re using our scale and expertise to grow the nation’s forests for everyone. We’re already adapting our landscapes for tomorrow, and getting stuff done today, like creating amazing places and experiences for you to enjoy. We're providing vital homes for wildlife, making our air cleaner to breathe and producing sustainable timber.
What you’ll do…
Learning and training would be provided at Forestry England Plant and Seed Supply (PSS) and Rease heath college to seed and grow the trees for the nation’s forests. You will have the opportunity to master skills and become competent on supporting the general running of the nursery, including crop husbandry, plant production, seed production and dispatch. You will become a champion of our health & safety culture by exercising our value of ‘look out and look after’ within our work.
Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.
Where you’ll work…
The Forestry England Plant and Seed Supply (PSS) unit manages 150ha of Forest Nursery sites, plus our Seed Processing Facility. Our operations are focussed on supplying trees for the 250,000 hectares of public land we manage. From our Seed Processing Unit, we supply tree seed to our own nursery and to external customers. The unit, run by a team of three, is responsible for processing and storing the seed collected from our own seed resources. These resources include 14 orchards and 39 seed stands, which are being added to annually. We are looking ahead and recognise that the climate is changing. We therefore also source seed from places where the climate today is similar to conditions we're expecting in the future, thereby increasing the resilience of our forests. Work has been completed of the construction of a new, world-leading, seed processing facility. The custom designed building houses state-of-the-art equipment, ensuring we are able to meet forest production requirements for decades to come. At our nursery sites in Cheshire, we sow the seeds and nurture their development into high quality transplants to be planted out in our forests. We produce both bare-root plants in our open fields, and as cell-grown plants in our glasshouse and polytunnels. A team of 30 staff produce over 8 million trees annually, including broadleaf and conifer species. We have exciting plans to increase outputs and efficiency through mechanisation and automation.
Benefits…
Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.
- 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
- STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
- free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
- a commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.
Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.
How to apply…
You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.
The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –
- Making Effective Decisions
- Developing Self and Others
- Communicating and Influencing
- Seeing the Bigger Picture
Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.
If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.
Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.
Nationality requirements…
Read more about nationality requirements here.
Working for the Civil Service…
Forestry England is part of the Civil Service. The Civil Service has a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS). This means candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria during the application process will be guaranteed an interview. We also offer a Redeployment Interview Scheme to current civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the role. This role is also part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans and Prison Leaver Recruitment initiative.
Within Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, it is essential that applicants should have the ability to provide conversation in accurate spoken English.
Our recruitment process makes appointments based on fair and open competition and merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in in line with/according to these principles and you wish to make a complaint, please email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk.
