Plant and Seed Technician Apprentice

Cuddington, North West England, CW8 2GN

Job Summary

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.

Job Description

Training will be provided on the following –

Plant production –

• sow seeds manually and using machines
• fill trays and transplant seedlings
• propagation from cuttings
• harvesting, packing, and grading trees to customer specification
• keep accurate records of operational outputs using the methods provided by nursery management
• collect data and enter it into Forestry England applications
• report issues promptly

Plant/crop husbandry –

• be organised, follow spoken/written instructions and guidance from supervisors, managers and manufacturer’s instructions
• maintain plant and soil health by watering, feeding, weeding, and spraying
• monitor crops for pests and diseases and report any concerns quickly
• monitor and control weeds using manual, mechanical and herbicides as required
• use plant protection products as part of an integrated pest management programme

Seed unit –

• forest seed science
• seed collection, processing, testing and sowing
• seed orchard establishment and maintenance
• seed testing – purity, viability, germination etc

Health and safety –

• follow health and safety training and instructions
• use checklists and risk assessments when for tasks
• follow proper lifting techniques and safety guidelines to prevent accidents and injuries
• correctly and safely use trollies or other manual handling equipment as required
• follow relevant biosecurity legislation, policies, procedures, and rules provided in training courses
• make sure members of staff and visitors follow site biosecurity measures

Team working –

• work as part of a team or on your own to achieve nursery targets and goals
• use your initiative to work proactively to complete tasks
• provide first level support and direction to seasonal agency staff so that nursery operations are carried out professionally and effectively
• be willing to undertake training to improve your skills

Other Topics –

• root and shoot electrolyte leakage tests
• basic budget management
• insight into plant dispatch
• in house trials
• pesticide application training by the college

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager

Training will be provided on the following –

Plant production –

• sow seeds manually and using machines
• fill trays and transplant seedlings
• propagation from cuttings
• harvesting, packing, and grading trees to customer specification
• keep accurate records of operational outputs using the methods provided by nursery management
• collect data and enter it into Forestry England applications
• report issues promptly

Plant/crop husbandry –

• be organised, follow spoken/written instructions and guidance from supervisors, managers and manufacturer’s instructions
• maintain plant and soil health by watering, feeding, weeding, and spraying
• monitor crops for pests and diseases and report any concerns quickly
• monitor and control weeds using manual, mechanical and herbicides as required
• use plant protection products as part of an integrated pest management programme

Seed unit –

• forest seed science
• seed collection, processing, testing and sowing
• seed orchard establishment and maintenance
• seed testing – purity, viability, germination etc

Health and safety –

• follow health and safety training and instructions
• use checklists and risk assessments when for tasks
• follow proper lifting techniques and safety guidelines to prevent accidents and injuries
• correctly and safely use trollies or other manual handling equipment as required
• follow relevant biosecurity legislation, policies, procedures, and rules provided in training courses
• make sure members of staff and visitors follow site biosecurity measures

Team working –

• work as part of a team or on your own to achieve nursery targets and goals
• use your initiative to work proactively to complete tasks
• provide first level support and direction to seasonal agency staff so that nursery operations are carried out professionally and effectively
• be willing to undertake training to improve your skills

Other Topics –

• root and shoot electrolyte leakage tests
• basic budget management
• insight into plant dispatch
• in house trials
• pesticide application training by the college

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager

Person specification

Essential Professional And Technical Experience

• can do attitude
• passion to learn
• willingness to do a manual job

Behaviours

We\’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Developing Self and Others
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture

Alongside your salary of £23,732, Forestry Commission contributes £6,875 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

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.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

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.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

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.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission\’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

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.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission\’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

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).

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 :

• Name : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

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: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment. #J-18808-Ljbffr