Take new path with Scotland’s Rural College

The Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) Elmwood Campus in Cupar, Fife, offers a variety of courses including countryside management, animal care, gamekeeping, greenkeeping, professional golf, golf management, hospitality and horticulture.

It’s never too late to change your path as Jenny Paterson from St Andrews knows only too well.

She graduated from Strathclyde University with an arts and social sciences degree in 1998 and quickly fell into a variety of office-based jobs including finance and investments.

Latterly she managed the Madras Rugby club, where, as a result of her redundancy at the start of the recession, she began considering a career outdoors.

“My moment of clarity came when I read a magazine article about a lady who was in a similar situation and age to me who had packed up her life and travelled to Africa as a conservation volunteer.

“Six months later I travelled on my own to Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve, situated in the breathtaking Wild Coast of South Africa, where I volunteered for six weeks.

“I learned about habitat management, the conservation of indigenous plant species and the eradication of alien species.

“Working in such a beautiful environment simply ignited the fire inside me that was already glowing so when I returned to the UK I set about investigating how I might land such a job.

“I contacted Fife Coast and Countryside Trust and met Tony Wilson, (who is now employed as a lecturer at the Elmwood Campus).

“He advised me to do the countryside management course at Elmwood and I’ve never looked back.”

“The course covered so much

– land and its uses, whether for agriculture, recreation and conservation; interpretation; archaeology; bird ID; red squirrel surveys, geology, to name only a few of the subjects.

“As well as studying I had a parttime job as an education ranger at the Scottish Deer Centre and I also volunteered with Fife Countryside Trust, helping with the West Sands dune stabilisation project.

“This is an ongoing dune planting programme that involves transplanting grasses from an already stable area to more precarious sections of the dunes that are in danger from coastal erosion.”

Jenny’s claim to fame was her foot appeared briefly on TV show Countryfile, which was covering the conservation work.

She also appeared on an episode of Landward, filmed teaching school children about pond life.

Jenny was awarded the Student of the Year accolade for two years running, before being selected out of 850 applicants to become an apprentice with the Forestry Commission Scotland.

Following nearly four years with FCS, Jenny has landed her dream job as conservation manager of Cameron House and The Carrick on Loch Lomond.

She is responsible for looking after 400 acres of woodland and wetland bordering the 18-hole golf course.

Jenny said she realised just because she was a certain age did not mean she had exhausted all career opportunities.

“There are no boundaries with age and this particular course.

“I owe a huge amount to Elmwood, not only because of the course structure but to the lecturers who delivered the programme and the rangers who mentored me along the way.

“I’m still using skills I learnt in class and on field trips from my days at Elmwood College.

“I absolutely love my job and I feel honoured to be a guardian of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.”

The college attracts students from across Fife, Perthshire and Tayside.

It also attracts people from many other areas of the UK as well as European and International students.

Courses range from introductory level programmes to Higher National Diploma levels, with excellent progression routes to degree programmes at other SRUC campuses and other universities.

As funding is increasingly an issue for students, Elmwood can ease the financial burden by allowing you to study to HNC/ HND level locally before accessing a university course directly into the second or third year.

For more information and inspiration on how you can change your path why not come along to one of SRUC Elmwood’s open evenings?

Book online now by visiting www.sruc. ac.uk/Elmwoodopendays

Jenny prepares to wade up a river as she looks for a family of otters that live near Loch Lomond Golf Club.