James Jones & Sons Ltd recently helped stage a Land Based Sector Day organised through DYW Moray, the local organisation that works to develop the young workforce in the Moray area.

James Jones & Sons Ltd recently helped stage a Land Based Sector Day organised through DYW Moray, the local organisation that works to develop the young workforce in the Moray area. The James Jones organised event focused on ‘Production and Utilisation of Forestry’ and was put together with the help and commitment of a number of local forestry related businesses, including Forestry and Land Scotland, Forres Tree Services and Colin Thompson Harvesting. This was one of the 13 employment sectors aimed at secondary school pupils which also covered agriculture, fisheries management, animal nutrition and field engineering.

On a wet and dreary day at Dipple Farm in Fochabers, spirits were not dampened at all as pupils and guidance teachers from several Moray based secondary schools were given a series of talks and demonstrations by the participating organisations, including several James Jones and Sons' personnel. A ‘hands on’ approach was taken in the afternoon sessions with pupils given access to the James Jones' Hi-Vision timber lorry, a timber harvester from Colin Thompson and tree climbing supported by Forres Tree Services.

Another important aspect covered on the day was the idea of 'no wrong career path' with representatives of all the participating business describing their own particular route to the industry, to show the assembled pupils the varied paths everyone had taken to get where they are today.

This was the second year the event had been held and forms part of ongoing support of DYW and promotion of forest industry within local primary and secondary schools in Morayshire by local forestry businesses, led by James Jones and Sons.

It’s great to be involved in this event to promote the forestry industry to young people, and to see the time and effort put in by everyone to make this a success – despite the weather!
Donald Beaton,
Harvesting Manager