Skills Bootcamps in Biodiversity Net Gain
We have now filled our Autumn / Winter 2025 Skills Bootcamps funded by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority. We are actively seeking opportunities for additional funding, including to run Skills Bootcamps in other areas to address priority skills needs. Please use the expression of interest form below to register your interest and indicate which region(s) you work in. We will alert you to any applicable opportunities as they arise in 2026.
Express interest in Skills Bootcamps
Following the award from the Department for Education of grant funding administered by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority we are delighted to be running our first funded ‘Skills Bootcamp in Biodiversity Net Gain’. Our Skills Bootcamp is an intensive programme of more than 60 hours of CIEEM training and additional wraparound career development support, delivered over a 16 week period.
The Skills Bootcamp consists of three days in-person training in Bristol, including a residential, with weekly online sessions with CIEEM trainers. These are complemented by webinars / panel discussions to allow a range of employers, clients and stakeholders to share their perspectives and needs. For example attendees will hear from representatives of statutory bodies and regulators, residential homebuilders, and experienced professionals producing new BNG and ecological restoration guidance. Participants will develop their knowledge of the Statutory Biodiversity Metric, UKHab, QGIS, planning, conservation legislation, and habitat creation and monitoring, with opportunities to further their understanding of either green finance or the BNG watercourse metric.
‘In 2023 we published research recommending that CIEEM support the development of funded Skills Bootcamps to diversify routes into ecology and environmental management and support upskilling. I’m really excited to have reached this point with the support of many employers and individuals.’ – Dr Mark Nason, Head of Professional Practice
Between 70 – 100 % of the cost of a Skills Bootcamp, including residential accommodation where applicable, is funded by the Department for Education, depending on the employment status of participants. The remaining cost must be covered by employers to support upskilling and progression – companies with fewer than 250 employees will pay 10 % of training costs and large employers must pay 30 %. If you are a Director of a limited company who is also its employee (even if you are the only employee), and receive at least part of your income through PAYE, then you are treated as an employee, and your company needs to contribute 10 % of the training costs.
Funding used to cover training costs is devolved to local government to meet local skills needs – this means that it is only eligible to people contributing to economic activity in the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority region. This means that to be eligible you will normally be living and / or working in the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority region. In some cases you may be eligible if neither of these criteria apply, but you can provide evidence of current and continuing work in the region – for example if you are a consultant / advisor with clients and projects in the region.
We will continue to look for other sources of funding to subsidise training, and delivering these Skills Bootcamps successfully provides us with a model to pitch for funding elsewhere.
Who can apply for a Skills Bootcamp?
The funding to deliver this training is part of a UK Government initiative to support people into work and help people to upskill. To be eligible to apply you must be:
- living in and / or working extensively in the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority region (and able to evidence this)
- aged over 19 with permission to work in the UK
- supported by your employer with demonstrable opportunities to progress in your career as a result of training
If you are not sure, you can check whether you are in the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority region using this map: West of England Local Enterprise Partnership Boundary — Open Data Portal.
Our Skills Bootcamps are open to consultant and local authority ecologists, and any professionals associated with or with opportunities to become more involved in BNG work, for example planners, landscape architects, farming advisors, and land / habitat bank managers. You do not need to be a CIEEM member.
If you are a full-time student at 1st September 2025 then you are not eligible to apply this time.
Please do contact us to discuss if you are unsure whether you may be eligible. If you are not eligible then a list of other currently available Skills Bootcamps by region is provided by the National Careers Service. We also provide advice and guidance on careers in ecology and environmental management through Green Jobs for Nature.
Further Information
If you have any queries regarding Skills Bootcamps then please contact training@cieem.net.
CIEEM would like to thank the following employers who provided advice on the content of our Skills Bootcamps or are involved in delivery:
