To really get ahead in a forestry career, it is important for people to acquire specialist skills and to become experts in their chosen fields. Fortunately the leading institutions offer a range of short, specialist forestry-related courses designed for people already working in the industry to upgrade their knowledge and skills quickly.

The University of Stellenbosch offers a range of courses from forest finance and valuation to timber harvesting and transport systems costing and GIS.

The University of Pretoria offers short courses on environmental issues including wetland rehabilitation, EIA administration and environmental management.

Forestry Solutions in collaboration with NMMU offers a huge range of short courses including fire prevention planning, wildfire management, FSC, harvest planning and management and road construction and design.

The College of Machine Operators, located at PG Bison's state-of-the-art training centre in Ugie provides a range of training for forest machine operators including theoretical, simulator-based and practical training.

There are a number of private training companies offering skills training courses on all aspects of forestry operations. It's probably a good idea to stick to those organisations accredited with the Forest Industries Training Providers Association.

For detailed information about training opportunities in forestry, please visit our training page.