A year ago, Rosie Ashworth was working at a farm shop and considering her next career move. The 25-year-old, from a small village in the Yorkshire Dales, said she always wanted a job that offered “more working outside, trying to make a difference”.
“Like a lot of rural areas, there’s fewer opportunities. It tends to be if you want to go off and do education, it’s usually in a city,” she said.
Having grown up helping on her family smallholding, Rosie wanted a job that would see her learning practical skills, “working with farmers and landowners”.
“When I was looking, I thought there’s few opportunities to do [that] and it’s not really something that’s pushed at school either.”
She applied for an apprenticeship scheme, offered by charity Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT) which offers “practical skills across conservation, forestry, peatland restoration, land management and traditional landscape work”.
YDMT chief executive Michael Devlin said the scheme aims to help young people “remain in the communities where they grew up”.
“The employment market is really tough for school leavers at the moment, and we know how hard it is for young people to gain that vital work experience to take their first steps on the career ladder,” he said.
