Bushcraft Courses for Professional Development
See also NCFE Accredited Bushcraft Courses
These courses are designed for outdoor professionals, such as rangers, mountain leaders/guides, forest school practitioners, scout/DofE workers, outdoor education teachers/instructors etc who want to broaden their knowledge and personal development in the subject of Bushcraft. THESE COURSES CAN BE TAILORED TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR PROFESSION.
WE CAN TRAVEL TO YOUR CENTRE OR A SUITABLE LOCATION FOR ARRANGED GROUP BOOKINGS.
Institute for Outdoor Learning - Foundational Bushcraft Competency Certificate
| Duration: | 3 days training, 2 days assessment. |
| Cost / Venue | Prices vary depending on location, but range from £60-£70 per day for training and there is a set fee to IOL of £100 per day for assessment.Venues in England & Scotland - please contact for further details or see Course Directory. |
| Min - Max No. | 6 - 8 |
This is a basic bushcraft award which concentrates on safety and best practice in certain key areas of bushcraft. It is a personal award in competency and not an endorsement of teaching ability in the subject. It covers the following areas:
- General Safety & Hygiene
- Use of Sharp Tools
- Effective Shelter Construction
- Basic & Friction Fire Lighting
- Water Purification
- Leaving no Trace
- Basic Tree ID
- Sustainable use of Resources
Successful completion of the award will be recognised by the IOL and your name entered on their web-site as having achieved this certificate.
Introductory Bushcraft
| Duration: | 3 days |
| Cost / Venue | Prices vary depending on location. Venues in England & Scotland - please contact for further details or see Course Directory. |
| Min - Max No. | 6 - 8 |
This course has been designed as a general introduction into the subject of bushcraft but also covers the training syllabus for the Institute for Outdoor Learning (IOL) new Foundational Bushcraft Competency Certificate:
- Bushcraft tools: design, selection, safety and maintainance
- Fire by friction, other fire lighting methods, fire construction and management
- Water collection, filtering and purification
- Improvised shelters
- Modern shelter systems
- Sustainable use of resources
- Ropes and knots in bushcraft
- Natural cordage
- Plants and trees for food, medicine and other bushcraft uses
- Leaving no trace
- General safety & hygiene
- Essential outdoor safety equipment
- Sustainable use of natural resources and minimal impact on environment.
- Simple camp fire cooking
Basic Bushcraft
| Duration: | 2 days |
| Cost / Venue | Prices vary depending on location. Venues in England & Scotland - please contact for further details or see Course Directory. |
| Min - Max No. | 6 - 8 |
This two-day intensive course has been designed specifically to meet the needs of outdoor professionals that want to broaden their knowledge and skills of the natural world. The emphasis is two fold. Firstly to use interpretative walks to identify the natural resources that have a variety of bushcraft uses and secondly to practise some basic bushcraft skills. All of this can be shared with clients / groups to extend their knowledge and appreciation of the outdoors. Obviously the course will also impart some basic survival skills.
Course Content:
- Philosophy of bushcraft and how that relates to outdoor professionals.
- Plant and tree identification plus information on useful books to aid identification and give background knowledge.
- Use of plants and trees for food, water, medicine, cordage, fire lighting, containers and shelter.
- Introduction to basic tracking and wildlife observation.
- Natural navigation or finding your way without the use of a map, compass or GPS.
- Fire making using natural materials including the fire by friction technique.
- Fire construction and maintenance plus useful modern fire lighting methods.
- Bushcraft tools: design, selection, safe use and maintenance.
- Legislation and the law in relation to bushcraft activities.
- Examples of improvised natural shelters.
This course contains lots of practical activity and some of the information imparted will be supplied in a booklet to act as an aid memoir for later use with potential clients / groups.
Read more from course review article in BAIML "The Leader"
Intermediate Bushcraft
| Duration: | 4 days |
| Cost / Venue | Prices vary depending on location. Venues in England & Scotland - please contact for further details or see Course Directory. |
| Min - Max No. | 6 - 8 |
This course builds on the two day Introductory Bushcraft Course. The focus of this course is to impart the necessary skills and background knowledge that outdoor professionals would find useful when working with clients, scouts, cadets, D of E or youth groups or working/travelling in remote regions as expedition leaders.
PLEASE NOTE - completion of this course and the Introductory course will also cover the training syllabus of the IOL Foundational Bushcraft Competency Certificate.
Course content:
- Revision of aspects of the Introductory Bushcraft Course through activities and challenges.
- Modern Shelter Systems: - tarps, hammocks, mosquito net arrangement for jungle travel, bivi systems and tarps for lightweight or desert travel.
- Improvised Shelters/beds: - Methods of constructing a variety of improvised shelters/beds from natural materials.
- Safe and effective positioning of shelters.
- Useful Bushcraft Knots:- used in shelter constructions, dry wood harvesting from trees:- timber hitch, Evenk overhand hitch, adjustable loop knot for guy lines, clove hitch, bowline, tree-surgeon’s throwing coil, Waggoner’s hitch and sheet bend.
- Useful Bushcraft Lashings:-square and diagonal for joining wood and constructing such things as beds, improvised stretchers and tripods for shelters and cooking pots.
- Cordage: - production from natural materials.
- Fire: - Revision and expansion of two day course work with practicals in: fire lighting in damp conditions, fires for signalling, different fire lays for cooking, warming, lighting.
- Construction of twig kindling bundles for emergency fire lighting.
- Charred cloth tinder preparation.
- Cooking Methods: - steaming, boiling, broiling, ember and hot rocks. Plus improvised stoves.
- Game Preparation.
- Water Purification: - finding, collecting, filtering and purifying. Plus water strategy for travelling in remote regions.
- Solar still, gypsy well, transpiration/vegetation bag water collection, dew traps, improvised salt water distillation systems and improvised filter systems.
- Signalling:- smoke, heliograph, flares, whistles, strobes, torches, radio, phones and ground markers.
- Helicopter Evacuation Procedures.
- Hot/Cold Injuries: - dehydration, sunburn, heat: cramp, syncope, exhaustion and stroke. Hypothermia, frostnip, frostbite, immersion/trench foot, frozen lung, cornea,eyelashes and snow blindness.
- Ticks, Stings and Bites.
- Camp Hygiene and useful Bushcraft remedies.
- “Leave no Trace” and minimising our impact on the environment.
- Revision and expansion of useful Bushcraft plants and trees.
- Safe and economic harvesting of Bushcraft resources.
- Harvesting suitable foods and introducing “Edibility Test List” for safe food consumption.
Tracking & Wildlife Observation
| Duration: | 2 days |
| Cost / Venue | Prices vary depending on location. Venues in England & Scotland - please contact for further details or see Course Directory. |
| Min - Max No. | 6 - 8 |
This course builds on the Introductory Bushcraft Course.
Course content:
- Revision and expansion of observing signs of wildlife.
- Recognising animal tracks.
- Making casts of animal tracks.
- Animal gait and common gait patterns.
- Tracking tools.
- Introduce the technique of tracking and trail following by using practical activities in man tracking.
- Trail following and lost trail procedure.
- Camouflaging, de-scenting and hides.
- Effective stalking and silent movement.
- Techniques and games to sharpen the senses and increase observational skills.
- Observational equipment.
- Lures and calls to attract wildlife.