A YOUNG graduate is the first of a newly-funded apprenticeship scheme that is hoped will breathe new life into Purbeck’s traditional woodland skills.

Fiona de Wert, aged 25, will spend the next three years training with coppice and green worker Toby Hoad on the Rempstone Estate, near Wareham.

She said: “I realised after my three years at university that the academic side isn’t for me. The thing that really sparked my interest was being practical, doing things with my hands.

“This apprenticeship is exactly the challenging learning environment I’ve been looking for.

“Hopefully the new skills I’ll learn will benefit the woodlands of Purbeck as well as allowing my creative side to flourish.”

Coppicing is a centuries old and environmentally-friendly way of managing woodland. Trees are cut at ground level causing straight rods to grow, which can be chopped to make rustic products such as furniture and walking sticks.

It is an endangered rural skill which has suffered from a lack of new recruits.

The apprenticeship is backed by a £250,000 investment from education charity Ernest Cook Trust, and is run by the charity Small Woods in partnership with Dorset Wildlife Trust.

Small Woods’ apprenticeship officer Fran Fowkes said: “We are really pleased that we can support an apprentice in Dorset.

“This area has such a long history of coppice management that it is essential to keep it going. We are very grateful to the Ernest Cook Trust for supporting the coppice sector and providing this opportunity.”