Over the past two weeks our Management Trainees have been participating in our annual Trainee Challenge.
This year we have been helping upskill residents at Camphill Village Trust and students at Lanchester Community Free School through Carpentry and Biodiversity workshops.
In our Now or Never strategy, we are aiming to have a better planet and build lives. Through the Trainee Challenge workshops, we have been increasing biodiversity by creating bug hotels, bird boxes and planters to encourage more wildlife into the communities. As well as this, we have been upskilling those involved by teaching them new skills and knowledge that they can use in the future.
We helped the residents at Camphill to drill together each of the bird boxes, bug hotels and planters.
The bird boxes were then painted by the residents and the students at Lanchester Community Free School before decorating them to give them a personal touch. Our trainees then helped them to install the bird boxes in their local area to encourage birds to come.
We then helped those involved to paint the bug hotels and then fill them with bamboo, bark and pinecones, before installing them near each of the bird boxes to increase biodiversity in their local community.
Finally, we helped them to paint the planters and fill them with soil before planting the plants in a way that the residents wanted to arrange them. The residents painted pebbles to put into the planters to make them more unique and personalise them. Our trainees then helped to take the planters and install the planters where the residents and the students wanted them to go.
Overall, we helped to upskill 80 students at Lanchester Community Free School and 18 residents at Camphill Village Trust!
At the end of each workshop, we presented them with a certificate for what they had achieved which they were all delighted with.
Above: One of the finished planters at Camphill Village Trust
Above: The finished Bird Boxes and Bug Hotels
Chloe Willicombe, one of our Commercial Trainees has been leading it this year. Talking about her experience, she said, “I am so proud to have lead the WDI trainee challenge this year. Working with the Camphill residents and the students at Lanchester Community Free School has been so rewarding. During the 2 weeks we have created great relationships with them and watched their confidence grow as they gained skills through the workshops. They were all really happy with what they had achieved and are looking forward to bringing more nature to their community.”
Thank you to Camphill Bakery for providing us with afternoon cakes and treats throughout the 2 weeks and to Liberty Kitchen who we chose to provide lunch for the residents at Camphill and our people. Liberty Kitchen are a social enterprise that work with prisoners and ex-prisoners to help reduce reoffending rates.
Above: The food provided by Liberty Kitchen
We are proud of what were able to achieve in the two weeks of the Trainee Challenge. It was great to see the residents at Camphill Village Trust and the students at Lanchester Community Free School progress over the time they spent with us learning new skills.
Above: Our Trainees, Chloe Willicombe and Harry Cockerill, with the residents who participated in the workshops at Camphill Village Trust.