’I just feel alive’: How the YouCAN scheme helped Charlie find his passion for working outside

’I just feel alive’: How the YouCAN scheme helped Charlie find his passion for working outside

Meet Charlie, an intern at the Countryside Education Trust who, thanks to our Youth for Climate and Nature (YouCAN) scheme, has found his passion for working in the outdoors.

On finishing sixth form and having decided that university was not for him, Charlie pursued his love for the outdoors through volunteering and found his way onto The Parks Foundation’s Young Adult Ranger Work Experience programme in Bournemouth, funded by the YouCAN scheme. Having gained practical experience here and learning from Programme Lead Will Bowskill, Charlie was then recommended for the internship at the Countryside Education Trust (CET), another YouCAN project in Beaulieu.

We joined Charlie at CET on a chilly January morning where he was practising coppicing, a traditional woodland management technique that has been used in this particular woodland in the Beaulieu estate for several hundred years – originally to support the boat building industry at Bucklers’ Hard. Now, much of CET’s coppiced woodland, such as the hazel that Charlie and others worked on, is sold to local garden centres or used for hedge laying.

As part of the internship, Charlie not only takes part in the hands-on practical side of coppicing, but also quality control and brokering deals with the garden centres and individual buyers.

When asked about how he feels when working outside, Charlie said: ‘I just feel alive basically. I love being outdoors it’s my favourite place to be. The Countryside Education Trust is extremely varied, I’ve been here a week and I’ve already learned tractor maintenance, animal maintenance and feeding, coppicing process, coppicing quality control and use of all the hand tools.

‘I live right next to a common, so I know that feeling of you want to walk the dog and you’re like, “oh, there’s a new woodland path here, this looks really nice”. You want to get that to everybody, so everybody actually values their local parks and green spaces and it’s not just like a dumping ground for litter and things like that, people value it. I just feel energised.’

Every single one of our staff has said working with the interns had been a highlight of their year.

It’s not just Charlie who has benefitted from the internship programme at CET. Through the YouCAN scheme, CET has supported 11 interns across a range of specialisms including wading bird conservation, orchard management and creation of educational materials.

In December 2024, CET hosted seven interns at the same time all working on their projects and networking with each other. Two of these interns have since found paid work in the environmental sector and have written back to CET to say that it was the practical experience they gained through the YouCAN internship that helped them stand out in the application process.

CET Operations Manager Anna Barnard said: ‘Everybody in our team’s doing this kind of thing for the same reasons, because it’s what we love doing and there’s nothing better than being able to share that with somebody else.

‘These young people come in and they’re bringing something different to the mix. They’ve got new ideas and everything is new to them, so everything that we’re showing them is super exciting, it’s the first time that they’re doing it. It’s still exciting to us, but it’s also given us a boost because it kind of reminds us of what is really special and exciting about what we do.

‘I asked one intern how she was getting on and she said, “it’s great but it’s not like real work, because I’m really enjoying what I’m doing but it feels like I’m doing my hobby”. I replied, “to me that doesn’t tell me it’s not work, that tells me you’ve found the right thing”.

‘I think if we’ve enabled someone to find that feeling, that’s a good thing. I think this project will really stick with us. Every single one of our staff has said working with the interns had been a highlight of their year.’

Charlie’s first involvement with YouCAN was through Dorset-based charity, The Parks Foundation’s Young Adult Ranger Work Experience programme. This gives young people aged 16-25, in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area a chance to try out an environmental career, and build nature connections, confidence and crucial experience for their CV. Skills the programme helps to develop include species conservation, habitat creation, wildlife surveys, landscaping and park maintenance, among others.

On his time as a Ranger Charlie said: ‘It’s really rewarding when you’re working and then people realise, OK, maybe you don’t know especially what you’re doing, but you’ve got the drive and the motivation, so I’m going to take you on and I’m going to teach you and you’re going to lead with me.

‘Working with people like Will [Bowskill], he taught me loads of skills and then I got to the point where I’m with him and explaining things to volunteers, and I’m on radio interviews and social media and things like that.

‘I’m competing against all these really lovely, amazing people with graduate degrees and things like that, but I’ve made it here as well, I’m in the same room. It’s just massively rewarding when you’re like, “oh, this guy’s been working really hard give him a chance” because I feel like that’s on me and that means a lot.’

YouCAN funding has enabled The Parks Foundation to put more time and resource towards specifically focusing on 16–25-year-olds like Charlie, a demographic which, according to Young Adult Ranger Programme Lead Will Bowskill, it has previously struggled to engage with. He said: ‘Charlie was our first Ranger to sign up. He came along to our sessions and impressed me with his work ethic. He was keen to get involved with anything he could, and we worked on his practical skills and knowledge to help him find work. Charlie particularly improved his woodworking skills and technique in using hand tools.

‘It’s important for young people to have opportunities to explore a potential career pathway and gather a varied skillset to help them discover their passions and potential and possibly start them on their future track.

‘Our Young Adult Ranger programme is designed to fit around existing educational commitments or around working, both things which can stop young people taking up potential opportunities.

‘The project has enabled us to reach out to that age group, and participants have made big impacts in our parks. They have helped us with numerous landscaping and woodworking projects, planting trees and valuable wildflower meadow maintenance, along with attending and helping with community engagement events.’

I’ve been able to just work as hard as I want and get to where I want because YouCAN’s provided that funding and those projects. They’ve taken a barrier down the way I see it.

The Youth for Climate and Nature scheme aims to empower young people to develop green skills and lead climate action in their communities.

On the importance of projects like CET’s internship programme and The Parks Ranger Work Experience, Charlie said: ‘Projects like this are important for young people to build green skills. I like to think I’m a smart guy, but if you sat there and looked at this woodland and read me a sheet of “this insect lives here, these birds use these trees”, I wouldn’t get it, I wouldn’t understand the importance. But if you’ve put me here working in these woods, getting all this stuff down, getting it ready for the garden centre, knowing this is successional, this is all going to grow back, extending the lives of these trees. That hands on experience I think makes me understand it a lot more.

‘I think there are a lot of other people who don’t go near it because they’re not into the ecology side of it, which is also important. But I think knowing that there is also a massively important practical side of it as well, I think that would help a lot.

‘There’s not been a barrier of “you need a degree or a qualification, so you can’t come in”. I’ve been able to just work as hard as I want and get to where I want because YouCAN’s provided that funding and those projects. They’ve taken a barrier down, the way I see it, so it’s enabled me to get into volunteering, to get a passion for it and also, now that I’m here, there’s paid experience in conservation on my CV which is a massive help for the future.’

YouCAN was made possible thanks to National Lottery Players, through which £1.2 million was secured from a Climate Action Fund grant from The National Lottery Community Fund – the largest community funder in the UK – and a further £264,000 in match funding from partners.

The projects within the scheme span 300 square miles across the New Forest, Southampton and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and are led by the New Forest National Park Authority in partnership with the Countryside Education Trust in Beaulieu; Freshwater Habitats Trust; The Parks Foundation in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole; Southampton National Park City project; Theatre for Life, and care and support charity Alabaré. You can find out more about YouCAN here.

You can watch our morning at CET with Charlie below (turn off automatic closed captions):