Bushcraft Survival and Wilderness Living Course
As part of a training programme for VIA Team Members, Billy MacLeod and Mark Colman attended the NCFE Level 2 Bushcraft Survival and Wilderness Living Course with Survival School in Devon which is run by Jonny Crockett, an ex-RM Officer.
The course was incredibly hands-on and informative with a very knowledgeable team led by Jonny.
This course comprises 15 modules: natural navigation, fire making, shelter building, foraging, water preparation, traps and snares, knife sharpening, knife law, fire lighting by friction and other methods, game preparation x 3 (fish, mammal and bird), cutting tool safety, cutting techniques and natural cordage.
After a period of consolidation, VIA Team Members will practice the skills and work towards an instructor’s qualification with Survival School. The skills will be used to run Bushcraft Courses for the Veterans we help and to eventually run our own Bushcraft Academy where we will be able to train our own instructors from the Veterans we help.
VIA feels that Bushcraft Survival And Wilderness Skills will allow Veterans to revisit old skills in a different environment from what they previously knew and also learn many new skills that can be used in their day to day lives.
Once a proficient level is reached, these skills can be used to help organisations within the communities where VIA operate, enabling them to give something back to the community.
VIA are looking for landowners with a substantial amount of woodland on their property to enable our teams to run courses to help our Veterans. By using the woodland to run courses will also be a fantastic way to manage the woodland itself.
VIA would like to offer it’s thanks to all the staff at Survival School for the way they ran the course with great professionalism and humour. We look forward to working with you again in the future to further our skills.
