CEP commissioned by Natural ENGLAND to evaluate the Nurturing Nature Conservation Skills Project
CEP has been commissioned by Natural England to undertake the evaluation of the Nurturing Nature Conservation Skills using National Nature Reserves (NNRs) project funded under the Heritage Lottery Fund’s (HLF) Skills for the Future Programme. The evaluation is expected to run until summer 2017.
The aim of the Nurturing Nature Conservation Skills project is to evolve work-based training programmes and develop the skills of people entering the nature conservation sector or wanting to enhance specialist skills. It aims to demonstrate how practice-based learning models can provide the priority heritage skills required to care for England’s most valuable wildlife and geological heritage.
The project has been delivering training through placements across Natural England’s National Nature Reserves. Skills developed include habitat and species identification and recording, ecological surveying, habitat management and landscape restoration.
CEP is carrying out the evaluation of the project to establish whether and how its aims and objectives have been met and to provide evidence of successes. Key elements of the evaluation include:
- Developing qualitative and quantitative evaluation tools;
Coding and analysing the information delivered by these tools;
Reporting on the evaluation findings using a methodology that ‘tells the project story’.
Teresa Bennett is the evaluation project manager.