Help us develop online teams of school age learners to grow trees and build with timber to encourage early engagement with forestry and timber construction career potential
There is a real challenge in attracting young people into our industry. In fact, this has become an emerging threat to ambitions to build new homes and retrofit existing buildings. Many approaches are being explored to address this challenge, but whichever method employed, we believe it’s essential to inspire young people as to the fantastic careers that can be found in forestry, and sustainable construction. So, we’ve taken a decision to address this via the wonderful world of Minecraft.
Minecraft is what’s known as a ‘sandbox’ video game where players explore, build, and survive in a blocky, pixelated world. A player can gather resources, craft tools, and create almost anything that they can imagine. They can play on their own or with friends to create, explore or solve challenges. The online environment is available on all major games platforms, has a recommended PEGI rating of 7 and an ESBR rating of Everyone 10+. For further information, read What is Minecraft by Per Landin.
It’s highly possible that you know someone who has played the game, after all, 1 in 8 people on the planet have played the game.
Creating and piloting Forest Nation World
Woodknowledge Wales and some of its members spent time researching Minecraft and have decided to create Forest Nation World, an immersive environment for young people to explore, learn and create within the platform. Players in this online environment within Minecraft can “grow” trees and then use resources (such as Spruce timber) to design and construct sustainable buildings.
Our ambition is for Forest Nation World to provide an engaging platform for young people to learn about the forest industries. This aligns The Hwb, Welsh Government’s online portal for schools with a host of Minecraft resources to be used in the classroom such as the living sustainably scheme of work.
We’re already piloting this approach with two of our members: PYC Group (Welshpool) and Hiraeth Architecture (Cardiff). Both companies are working with young people to recreate sustainable timber buildings in Minecraft, buildings that also exist in the “real” world.
Rob Thomas, Director at Hiraeth Architecture said “We have an aging workforce across the timber and construction industries and a skills gap increasing year on year. Engaging young people in developing an understanding of trees, carbon and timber construction as fundamental to mitigating climate change is essential if we are to change this course. Hopefully ideas like this can serve as inspiration and mobilise a new generation”
Jasper Meade, Director at PYC Group said “PYC has worked at careers events with local schools to help promote what future there can be working in the construction industry. In particular, our field of expertise which is high performance timber frame housing. Having seen the potential with Minecraft, we feel that the idea of using Minecraft to engage young learners in the exploration of forestry, timber processing and building along with all the associated expertise such as engineering, design and manufacture will really get students excited and help them understand the potential in this world of work.”
Growing Forest Nation World
We want Forest Nation World to grow. This is where you come in.
We would love you to get involved and build a Minecraft team. We want you to work with young people, engaging them in the task of growing trees and forests and designing and building timber buildings in Minecraft.
An ideal start would be to contact a local school to create a project that aligns with both their approach to learning and safeguarding. We can help you with this.
We’ve created this video which we hope will inspire you to join us on this journey.
If you want to get involved and would like more information please contact james.moxey@woodknowledgewales.co.uk
