The Timber Skills and Resilience Lead will lead the development, co-ordination and delivery of Forestry England’s Timber Skills Academy and associated capability-building programmes. This role strengthens organisational resilience by creating a structured, high-quality training, mentoring and career development pathway for all staff involved in timber production.
The postholder will focus on ensuring that Forestry England has the skilled workforce needed to deliver the annual timber production plan, mitigate strategic skills-related risks, and support succession planning across harvesting, contract management, forest works management and timber operations.
Key responsibilities & accountabilities
1. Lead Development of the Timber Skills Academy (Immediate Priority)
Design and establish a structured “Timber Skills Academy” model covering training, CPD, skills acquisition, mentoring and career pathways for timber production roles.
Define the “core curriculum” for timber production, including technical harvesting, contract management, negotiation and influencing skills, timber systems, safety, and forest works supervision.
Identify priority roles or areas within the Forestry and Land Management function to target (e.g. Beat Foresters/Managers, Timber Officers, FWMs) and work with them and their managers to develop progression pathways. Communicate and lead so that there is a good understanding of the objectives and deliverables from our ‘Timber Skills Academy’ within Forest Districts, Business units and wider Forestry England.
2. Coordinate and Improve Training & Skills Development
Develop an annual skills/professional development plan aligned with organisational timber risks and capability gaps. Commission and deliver new and updated training modules including:
- timber production fundamentals
- Forestry England timber systems/processes (e.g. SCDB, eTimber)
- contract management CPD
- forest works management.
Work with Forest Districts and HS&TT to embed consistent training standards and embed quality assurance.
3. Build Mentoring and Support Networks
Establish a national mentoring framework for early-career colleagues and those new to timber production roles. Identify and procure/create mentoring training for both mentees and mentors to set expectations for both parties.
Pair experienced practitioners with new staff as part of structured learning pathways. Capture and share good practice, drawing on retiring specialists and mid-career expertise before it is lost.
4. Strengthen Workforce Pipelines
Support Forestry England’s relationship with Forest Services and external partners to enhance L3 Forest Craftsperson and L6 Professional Forester apprenticeships with timber production-focused content.
In collaboration with Technical Training, coordinate the launch of Forestry England’s in-house L4 Forest Works Manager qualification, focusing initially on experienced FWMs lacking formal accreditation. Contribute to HR/People Board work on “hard to recruit roles” by bringing evidence on timber production skills shortages and retention risks.
5. Build Capability in Data, Systems and Timber Assurance
Support training for staff and contractors involved in inventory collection and SCDB data processing. Work with Business Systems colleagues on future eTimber development and training needs.
6. Strengthen Organisational Resilience
Contribute to knowledge transfer and succession planning across the National Operations Forestry & Timber team, particularly during periods of high turnover. Provide surge capacity and operational resilience within the Forestry & Timber team during peaks of work, absence or staffing gaps.
7. Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration
Collaborate widely with Forest District management teams, National Operations teams, Forest Services, Forest Research, and external training partners. Represent the Academy and Forestry England’s timber skills approach in working groups as required.
Support clear communication about Forestry England’s timber skills strategy and its importance for commercial performance. And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.
Person specification
Skills, knowledge & experience
Essential professional and technical experience
- Extensive operational and technical forestry knowledge.
- Extensive timber production experience, ideally in harvesting, forest works supervision or timber sales/contract management.
- Demonstrable ability to train, mentor or coach others.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage across multiple teams and levels.
- Strong planning, organisational and project management capability.
- Understanding of Forestry England’s systems and processes related to timber production (or ability to learn quickly).
- Ability to work independently, be self‑directed, and drive initiatives to completion.
- Commitment to workforce development, safety and continuous improvement.
Desirable
- Experience delivering or designing training programmes.
- Familiarity with SCDB, eTimber or other timber inventory/sales systems.
- Experience in change management or organisational development.
- Understanding of contractor workforce capability and procurement levers that support skills development.
- Member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters or working towards Chartered status.
Additional Information
Your Experience and Technical Knowledge will be tested at the application stage. Your Technical Knowledge and the following Behaviours will be tested at the interview:
- Developing Self and Others – actively supports growth and learning.
- Leadership – inspires confidence, sets standards, and champions best practice.
- Working Together – builds relationships and collaborates across Forestry England.
Qualifications
Essential
- Maths and English GCSE or equivalent
Desirable
- Degree level forestry qualification or equivalent work experience
- Professional level membership of Institute of Chartered Foresters
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Developing Self and Others
- Leadership
- Working Together
- Making Effective Decisions
- Delivering at Pace
- Communicating and Influencing
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £40,388, Forestry Commission contributes £11,700 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience.
Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.
Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours.
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.
You will be assessed on a technical skill and strength based questions during your interview.
The Behaviours being assessed at interview are:
- Developing Self and Others
- Leadership
- Working Together
- Making Effective Decisions
- Delivering at Pace
- Communicating and Influencing
Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.
If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email [email protected].
If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.
Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Medical
Successful candidates will be expected to have a medical.
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window).
Working for the Civil Service
Please note this Post is not regulated by the Civil Service Commission.
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job contact
Recruitment team
Further information
Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: [email protected].
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.
Attachments
Forestry England Job Description - Timber Skills and Resilience Lead - Opens in new window (pdf, 279kB).
