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Schools Hold Forest Carrier Days together with Pēteris Stepiņš

To educate school students of grades 8 to 12 on career opportunities in the forestry sector, JSC "Latvia's State Forests" (LVM) in cooperation with the State Education Development Agency offers schools an opportunity to invite forester Pēteris Stepiņš with his special Forest Career Day programme.

The Forest Career Day programme consists of two lessons: a classroom presentation and outdoor activities. The Forest Career Day is open to any grade 8-12; applications should be submitted by 1 December at http://ej.uz/mezakarjerasdiena. The minimum number of participants in a group is 20, the maximum - 40 school students. At one school, the programme can be run sequentially for 1 to 2 groups of students. Each group of students should be applied separately completing a separate questionnaire.

A forester with more than 45 years of work experience who knows everything about the forest management cycle, from collection of cones, planting and tending of forest to work in a forwarder and woodworking workshop, furniture production - Pēteris Stepiņš is a good example of the fact that the forest sector is a very diverse and promising area. It is a field of interest for various professions and professionals, and especially for those who like to be in nature and work with natural materials.

On the first Forest Career Day, which took place at Babīte Secondary School on 3 November, Pēteris Stepiņš welcomed secondary school students from 40 eco-schools in Latvia. The daily routine of these young people is often associated with nature; yet many of them found challenging the practical tasks prepared by Pēteris Stepiņš that had to be done in nature. The participants had to measure the height of trees, determine the age of trees, recognise different species of trees, follow animal footprints and saw a log. They also had to calculate the amount of wood in timber products in order to find out how much carbon dioxide this wood has attracted when growing, thus reducing global warming.

Prior to that, the students shared their knowledge about the state of forests in Latvia, learnt about the most demanded professions in the forest and woodworking industry, and also tried on forester's clothing and equipment provided by LLC "Husqvarna Latvija".

The National Education Development Agency's resource NIID.LV (www.niid.lv) offers a variety of educational opportunities, including information on how to become a forestry professional. Of course, not all questions about career opportunities in the forest and woodworking industry can be answered during the Career Day; therefore all interested are encouraged to use another resource Profesiju Pasaule (World of Professions) (www.profesijupasaule.lv), offering a number of forestry-related professions.

Every minute, the volume of wood in the forests of Latvia increases by the amount of wood that is needed for the construction of a new family house. The forest areas in Latvia over the past 100 years have doubled and the importance of renewable resources in both the Latvian and global economy has been growing steadily. However, according to surveys, people in Latvia still lack understanding and information on the importance of forests in the Latvian economy. The existing educational standards for natural sciences, biology and geography are incomplete and do not show the connection between studies and real life. To address these problems, closer cooperation between schools and the forest sector is needed. This is facilitated by the Forest Career Day programme and other environmental education activities offered to schools by JSC "Latvia's State Forests". For more information please visit www.lvm.lv/skolam.