What To Look For in a Bushcraft School

There are an increasing number of bushcraft course providers – which is great, as it means that more people are learning and getting stuck into bushcraft!

There are also now some incredible courses on offer too, with a real variety, enabling you to up your game, accomplishing a greater skill set and pushing your knowledge base to the next level. 

But not all bushcraft schools are equal. 

So to help you out, here are a few tips and things to look for before booking your next course and handing over your hard earned cash!

Safety

To many of us this is obvious, but something that many of companies try to cut corners on. There should be a solid foundation of good safety standards within the company, backed up with risk assessments for all of the activities carried out along with the correct and full insurance. 

The instructors, as well as being knowledgable and experienced enough to teach the level of course being delivered, should also be first aid trained with training applicable to the environment they are teaching in, as well as being DBS checked and HSE compliant too.

This will tell you that as well as the instructors being professional and up to the job, that you are in safe hands.

Standards

This applies to the standard of instructors as well as the course content itself. 

We are very lucky here at Wildway to have a great mix of instructors with a great depth of knowledge and experience. All of our instructors love to share their knowledge and keep that spark and love of learning alive. Our instructors have all undertaken a multitude of courses to a high level to keep their skill set and knowledge base to a high standard and to back up their years of experience. 

The course itself should also be of a good standard, and this is the great thing about accredited courses – you know that they will be a good standard because strict guidelines and standards need to be met to get such accreditation. This is why we use NCFE for accrediting our courses as their standards are high and the qualifications gained are taken seriously in many sectors. This means that our clients get a qualification if they wish to complete the assessment stage of the course, as well as the knowledge and skills they’ve gained on the course itself. 

As accrediting bodies such as NCFE continue to monitor the courses we deliver and the standards we adhere to, plus with annual reviews too, this means that we keep Wildway, our instructors and the courses delivered at a high standard ensuring professionalism throughout the client experience and delivery of each course. 

Size

Before going on a course it’s a good idea to check what size of group will be on the course. There should be a maximum number of clients per course as a course that is too big won’t give you as much hands on experience and opportunity to practice, so consider that when booking. 

Site Used

When booking onto a course you may be told a little about the teaching site, or there should be some details on the company’s website. We are lucky to have two large deciduous woodland sites, both have their own unique qualities and both provide huge amounts of opportunities for clients to get stuck in and learn and test their skills. 

Both sites provide ample space and natural materials for clients to get stuck into bushcraft skills of all levels. If a site is too small you won’t have the space to move around and it will feel crowded and tightly packed. And if there isn’t great biodiversity within the woodland site then learning opportunities will be limited too. The same can be said if the woodland site isn’t well managed and has too much footfall to sustain a healthy woodland site. We are also mindful of footfall in certain areas of our sites, and safeguard certain areas at certain times times of the year to be mindful of taking care of the woodland site and the wildlife that call it home. 

We aim to keep our standards high, for safety as well as client enjoyment. Though our standards are high, we still keep a relaxed atmosphere making sure that clients can relax, as questions and have a great time here in our incredible woodland.

We are always happy to answer questions, so if you’d like to find out more about Wildway and the courses we run then please get in touch!