Do you want to keep learning or become a professional? We’re here to support you all the way.
So, you’ve started Cornish hedging and you’ve realised that this is something you fancy getting good at and perhaps paid for. See below for the FAQs, courses, workshops and special events we have for you.
How can I keep developing my skills?
Practice makes perfect! Whatever you aim to do with your hedging skills, we have lots of opportunities for you to simply practice. We don’t all have access to Cornish hedges that we can just have a go on, so we’ve provided some for you! Our trainers will be present so you can get help and you can even bring someone you know who just wants to experience the basics before committing to a course.
I’ve got an Introductory/Foundation Certificate. What next?
If you have completed a 2-day or 5-day course with us, then you have several options for your next training. If you need more basic training, then you can book another Foundation course to try dressed granite or to experience a different type of stone and style (for example, Granite or Killas Slate). If you’re ready, you can progress to the intermediate course. This is a 10-day course learning dressed granite skills and there is an assessment of your work at the end. Here’s our upcoming Intermediate Certificate courses:
How highly trained can I become with CREST?
The highest qualification we offer is an Advanced Certificate in Cornish Hedging. This is the certificate that is best to have if you want to become a professional or apply to join the Guild of Cornish hedgers.
To be eligible for the Advanced Certificate you need to have passed the 10-day intermediate certificate and completed 40 days of work experience. The 40-days can be volunteered or paid repairs and builds, our work experience days or your own hedges. The 40-days may be checked periodically by CREST, so they need to be logged and photographed for your portfolio (we help you with this). After 40-days of hedging, you will be invited to a final assessment of your hedge-building skills to check quality and pace of build. Once you’ve passed, you are eligible to apply to join the Guild of Cornish Hedgers as a craftsperson and you have a qualification to assure your customers of your ability.
How do I track my hedging days/ work experience for an advanced certificate?
Firstly – please let us know that you’re doing this, as ideally, we’d like to check in from time to time and see how it’s going. Ideally, we might do a little inspection halfway to make sure you’re on the right track.
Secondly, here’s a template hedging log to help you keep track. Make sure you take photos and add them to the sheet, or send them in separately when you submit the log.
Word Document: Click here to download the hedging log template.
PDF Document: Click here to download the hedging log template.
How do I learn to make special features in my hedges?
We have training days which can help you to gain specialist skills in Cornish hedging and stone carving. These are aimed at both progressing trainees and those already working in Cornish hedging. Whether it’s putting stiles, ends and hedge furniture into the hedge or carving something special for your work, these courses will help. These vary in price with some instances of fully funded training. Here’s what we have coming up for specialist skills.
Funded extra training for trainees – get ready for Intermediate or Advanced hedging.
If you want to get ready for your 10-day or advanced assessment, we recommend our fully-funded skills development days. These are 1 or 2 days trainings with Andrew Cockshaw, usually at a 1 trainer to 2 trainees ratio. These opportunities are funded by FiPL and available for a limited time only. Here’s our upcoming training days.
How do I get ready for professional hedging?
To help up-and-coming Cornish hedgers, we have developed our professional development days. These count towards your 40 days of hedging for your advanced certificate but are also really useful if you want to learn those extra professional skills around a job such as site set-up, different types of repair, solving real problems, applying special skills and starting from scratch in the field. We organise these as part of our Penwith Farms project, which is where we help farms in Penwith to repair and improve their Cornish hedges to preserve the hedge’s usefulness, local character and ecological benefit. Here’s our upcoming dates.
I’ve got more questions!
If you want to know more about any of the above or just email us a list of things you want to book, just email us. Click the button to get in touch.
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