Woodskills Training Initiative

To download our Seed 2 Saw Brochure, Please Click Here (PDF)

Fedw Hir provides a base for the trusts Seed2Saw project, this new initiative set out to establish a productive use for waste timber, a means to divert timber bound for landfill by finding a new use and supporting our pre-employment training programmes and the community projects we work on. The Project started in 2005 after investment from Forestry Commission Wales Cydcoed – Woodlands for All grants programme and further investment from Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council and the Countryside Council for Wales. The project continues to go from strength to strength and its services and products have helped numerous individuals to gain jobs, work experience as well as supplying project we work on with various materials and products.

Fedw Hir now boasts:-

· A fully operational Joinery shop

· Mobile sawmill and storage facility

· Open air seasoning barn

· Solar kiln

· Tree nursery facility

· Charcoal kilns and bagging facility

· Firewood and kindling seasoning area.

· Greenwood crafts training area

· Managed woodlands and trails for educational purposes.

The Seed2saw project offers a comprehensive range of services for clients from the public and private sector, who by using the projects services will help resource and maintain much valued training and experience for those furthest from the work place and seeking to make their way onto the jobs ladder. Those services available include:_

· Tree surgery, brashing and thinning

· Saw mill hire, log conversion

· Road side timber collection

· Seed collection and growing on

· Planting and woodland maintenance

· Manufacture of garden and countryside furniture in our Joinery shop (manufacture of bespoke items catered for) including a range of habitat boxes for birds, bats etc

· Firewood and kindling sales

· BBQ charcoal sales

More details of our products can be found on the Made at Fedw Hir Page

So who uses this facility?

Since 2005 Fedw Hir has seen individuals and community groups from all over Merthyr, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Cardiff and Blaenau Gwent receive tuition and pre-employment training in the joinery shop and with the saw mill. In 2011 alone the centre catered for nearly 500 Flexible New deal Placements and 192 Future Jobs Fund placements with around a third of them working on the Seed2Saw initiative. Merthyr College is another organisation amongst a host of other training providers, who regularly request placement provision for budding carpenters and youths with little or no practical experience. We have also provided opportunities to out of work carpenters to keep their hand in through volunteering. The result is that as a process of gaining experience and keeping active those who work with the initiative end up helping support a variety of projects and organisations achieve their goals.

For more information please download our Seed2Saw brochure.

---