The UK Forest Products Association (UKFPA) is to investigate how an eight-week intensive forest machine operators course can become a permanent feature of the timber industry.
Four trainees were given the chance to enhance their machine skills during the pilot programme, which was set up in response to a percieved lack of skilled workers in the machinery sector and staged by the UKFPA at Barony College near Dumfries.
They were given hands-on experience of machinery and were able to emerge from the end of the eight weeks with Forest Machine Operator Certification (FMOC).
“We will now carefully consider lessons learned from the course and explore how the course can become a permanent feature,” said Philip Higginbotham, convenor of the UKFPA harvesting and contracting committee. “The success of the candidates in achieveing FMOC is a real bonus too.”
The four trainees to complete the inaugural course were: Alistair Dick, from Dick Borthers Timber Harvesting; Alex Oleyik, from Stuart Booth Timber Harvesting; Andrew Young, from Elliot Henderson Timber Harvesting; and Narcus van Stone, from Harvwest Ltd.
