Friends of the Lake District with other key partners - Cumbria Woodlands, Cumbria Farmers Network, Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency, the Westmorland Agricultural Society, Xlvets and the Scottish Agricultural College - have secured over £1 million of European and DEFRA funding to provide training for local people employed in farming, food, forestry and land management businesses. The scheme is called the ‘Rural Skills Cumbria', providing training across a whole range of rural skills and demonstrating those skills to the wider public, from now until June 2013.

Our element of the project is called ‘Work the View - Enhancing and Celebrating Farmland Public Goods'. The Friends will work alongside the Arnside and Silverdale AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), Cumbria Farming and Wildlife Group, Dry Stone Walling Association (Cumbria), Lancashire and Westmorland Hedge Laying Association, Solway Coast AONB and the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.

The Work the View project will deliver 24 traditional skills competitions (dry stone walling and hedge laying) and 65 training events covering a range of land management skills from pond creation, restoring peat soils to creating and managing hay meadows. This will provide training for over 600 local farmers and contractors and demonstrate rural skills to over 6,000 members of the public.

Contact Carol Douglas, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 01539 720788, or visit www.ruralskillscumbria.co.uk for more information.

Friends of the Lake District is a project partner delivering training and demonstration events called ‘Work the View' celebrating and enhancing the following farmland landscape features and associated land management skills, for more information click here.

To view a calendar of forthcoming events and contact details please visit: www.ruralskillscumbria.co.uk

Rural Skills Cumbria is a training scheme covering the whole of Cumbria. The courses, workshops and events are aimed at people currently, or intending to, work in the farming, food and forestry sectors. Anyone over the age of 16, living and working in Cumbria is eligible.