How you’d get it

How you’d get this certificate

  1. Zavmo teaches you. You learn the units one-to-one with an AI tutor, on your own work.
  2. You register with an approved centre. That is a college, training provider or employer Open Awards has approved to offer this qualification. Zavmo is not an approved centre, so you register with them, not with us.
  3. The centre assesses, and Open Awards awards. A qualified assessor at the centre judges your evidence, and the certificate comes from Open Awards.

More on studying for a qualification

01What it is

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These are the units Open Awards registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated. Zavmo teaches towards them on your own work.

Zavmo is not an awarding body, is not an approved centre, and is not affiliated with Open Awards. It does the teaching and the mapping. Open Awards sets this qualification and awards it, and a qualified human assessor makes the assessment decision.

02The units

What each unit actually teaches you to do

Carry out a Woodland Survey Real unit · Open Awards
You'll learn to undertake woodland surveys using recognised methodologies, accurately record data, identify tree species, and understand relevant health and safety legislation and environmental good practice.

What you'll be able to do

  • Undertake a woodland survey, following a recognised methodology
  • Describe how to carry out a woodland survey, including data collection and analysis techniques
  • Explain relevant health and safety legislation and environmental good practice applicable to woodland surveys
Communication in the Workplace Real unit · Open Awards
This unit provides learners with knowledge of formal and informal communication lines within organisations. You'll understand the importance of effective communication for task management and conflict resolution in the workplace.

What you'll be able to do

  • Know the formal and informal lines of communication within own organisation.
  • Understand the need to communicate effectively with others in the workplace to ensure tasks are completed correctly and efficiently.
  • Communicate clearly and concisely with others about tasks in the workplace, using appropriate methods.
  • Know how conflict is dealt with in own organisation, including reporting procedures and support mechanisms.
Conduct and Report on a Field Survey for Habitat Types Real unit · Open Awards
You'll learn to conduct and report on field surveys for habitat types, including data collection and recording, safe fieldwork practices, minimising environmental impact, and presenting survey findings clearly.

What you'll be able to do

  • Collect and accurately record field survey data for different habitat types, using appropriate methods and equipment
  • Work safely in the field, following established procedures and minimising environmental damage
  • Report on the findings of the field survey for habitat types, presenting data in a clear and concise manner
Developing Self Real unit · Open Awards
It teaches you to take an active role in self-development by demonstrating initiative and commitment, setting realistic and achievable goals, planning development activities, and reviewing progress to inform future plans.

What you'll be able to do

  • Take an active role in their self-development, demonstrating initiative and commitment
  • Plan for their self-development by setting realistic and achievable goals
  • Review their self-development progress and plan for future development opportunities
Ecology and Conservation Real unit · Open Awards
You'll explore ecological principles including plant and animal interactions, plant structures, species evolution, and ecosystem development. The unit also covers assessing environmental issues and the rationale for conserving plants and animals.

What you'll be able to do

  • Know how plants and animals interact with their environment.
  • Understand plant structures and their purpose(s).
  • Know the principles of species evolution.
  • Understand ecosystem development.
  • Assess an environmental issue.
  • Understand the reasons for plant and animal conservation.
Environmental Awareness Real unit · Open Awards
This unit develops learners' awareness of human impacts on the environment, covering both positive and negative effects. You'll identify local environmental issues and engage in practical activities to improve their local environment safely.

What you'll be able to do

  • Demonstrate an awareness of how human actions impact the environment, both positively and negatively
  • Demonstrate an understanding of specific environmental issues affecting the local area, such as pollution or habitat loss
  • Carry out practical activities to help improve the environment in the local area, adhering to safety guidelines
Health and Safety for Environmental Studies Real unit · Open Awards
You'll develop an understanding of health and safety risks and hazards in environmental work. The unit covers the selection and use of appropriate protective clothing and relevant health and safety procedures and legislation.

What you'll be able to do

  • Know about potential risks and hazards when working in the environment.
  • Know about the appropriate protective clothing required for different environmental tasks.
  • Know about relevant Health and Safety procedures and legislation related to environmental work.
Introduction to Coppicing Real unit · Open Awards
This unit introduces learners to coppicing principles, suitable tree species, tool selection and maintenance, safe tool use, and health and safety considerations. You'll develop practical skills and environmental awareness related to coppicing.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the fundamental principles of coppicing and its environmental benefits
  • Understand that there is a range of tree species suitable for coppicing, and their specific characteristics
  • Understand how to select and maintain coppicing tools to ensure their safe and effective use
  • Demonstrate safe and effective use of coppicing tools in a practical setting
  • Understand the importance of health and safety considerations in each coppicing activity, including risk assessments and personal protective equipment
Introduction to Wildlife and Conservation Real unit · Open Awards
You'll be introduced to common UK habitats and their characteristics. The unit covers energy relationships between plants and animals, including food chains and food webs within habitats.

What you'll be able to do

  • Recognise a range of common habitats and their key characteristics.
  • Recognise the energy links between plants and animals within a habitat, including food chains and food webs.
Knowing Your Local Area Real unit · Open Awards
You'll gain knowledge of their local area, including key buildings and facilities, community concepts, and their responsibilities within the community. The unit fosters awareness of local resources and social roles.

What you'll be able to do

  • Know the location and use of key buildings and facilities in own local area, including public services and amenities
  • Understand the concept of community and the different groups and organisations that make up the local community
  • Understand own responsibilities as a member of the community, including respecting others and contributing to a positive environment
Planting and Staking a Tree Real unit · Open Awards
This unit equips learners with the skills to prepare a site, plant and stake a tree correctly, and provide immediate aftercare. You'll also be able to clear the site responsibly following planting activities.

What you'll be able to do

  • Prepare to plant a tree, selecting an appropriate location and gathering necessary materials
  • Plant and stake a tree correctly, providing immediate aftercare such as watering and protection from pests
  • Clear up the planting site after planting and staking a tree, disposing of waste materials responsibly
Practical Skills for Footpath and Surfacing Work Real unit · Open Awards
You'll gain practical skills to lay footpaths to specified standards and maintain them effectively. The unit includes identifying common defects and applying maintenance methods to ensure footpath usability and safety.

What you'll be able to do

  • Lay a path to a specified standard.
  • Maintain footpaths to ensure their continued usability and safety.
Prepare and Erect Post and Timber Fencing Real unit · Open Awards
It teaches you to accurately mark out a fence line and safely erect posts and attach rails for timber fencing. You'll demonstrate safe working practices throughout the fencing process.

What you'll be able to do

  • Mark out a fence line accurately and safely.
  • Erect posts for timber fencing according to specifications.
  • Attach rails securely to the erected posts.
Team Work in Environmental Studies Real unit · Open Awards
This unit develops learners' understanding of teamwork in environmental studies, focusing on group objectives, individual roles, performance reflection, strengths identification, and effective communication within a team.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand the objectives for group activities in environmental studies, including shared goals and individual roles
  • Reflect on own performance within a team, identifying strengths and areas for development
  • Communicate effectively with other team members, using appropriate language and listening skills
Use a Nylon Cord Strimmer Real unit · Open Awards
You'll gain knowledge of the components, pre-use checks, and maintenance of nylon cord strimmers. The unit develops skills to operate the equipment safely and effectively, adhering to personal protective equipment requirements.

What you'll be able to do

  • Safely and correctly use a nylon cord strimmer, including pre-use checks and maintenance.
  • Use a nylon cord strimmer effectively and safely to complete a given task.
Using and Maintaining Tools Used in Conservation Real unit · Open Awards
You'll gain knowledge of common conservation tools, their purposes, and materials. The unit develops skills in the safe use and maintenance of hand tools to ensure their effective and long-lasting use in conservation work.

What you'll be able to do

  • Identify a range of common tools used in conservation work and explain their purpose
  • Use a range of conservation tools safely and effectively, following established procedures
  • Describe how to maintain a range of conservation hand tools to ensure their longevity and effectiveness
  • Maintain a range of conservation hand tools, performing tasks such as cleaning, sharpening, and oiling
Valuing Equality and Diversity Real unit · Open Awards
This unit develops learners' understanding of equality, diversity, and discrimination. You'll recognise different aspects of equality and diversity and understand the effects of discrimination within a given context.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand different aspects of equality in a given context.
  • Understand different aspects of diversity in a given context.
  • Understand different aspects of discrimination and its impact.
Working as Part of a Group Real unit · Open Awards
It teaches you to understand how to contribute effectively within a group setting. You'll demonstrate communication skills, respect for others' views, and review both group progress and their individual contributions.

What you'll be able to do

  • Understand how to contribute to working as part of a group in appropriate ways.
  • Demonstrate how to work as an effective group member.
  • Review the group’s progress and their contribution to it.
By email

Free, by email

Is this the right qualification for you?

One email to help you decide: the facts, what it teaches, the jobs it leads to and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

Your employer, or 'self-employed'

Study the units online with a personal AI tutor, for £70 a month. Your first Future Fluency module is free.

03Where it leads

The jobs these credits are mapped to

A qualification is never a dead end here. Each of these is a job record this qualification is a mapped route into.

Showing 4 roles, drawn from 5 job records mapped to this qualification. Near-identical records are folded together, and each row says how many it stands for.

Where this can lead

Trainee Environmental Health Officer

This trainee role is a starting point. It can lead to work as a senior environmental health officer, or on to principal or managerial roles within the service.

See the whole journey
Still deciding?

One email to help you decide: the facts, what it teaches, the jobs it leads to and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

04The credits

The credits, and who awards them

Level 1 credits are regulated, and they are awarded by Open Awards rather than by Zavmo. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you have covered and what is next.

What you would be collecting

Carry out a Woodland SurveyCommunication in the WorkplaceConduct and Report on a Field Survey for Habitat TypesDeveloping SelfEcology and ConservationEnvironmental AwarenessHealth and Safety for Environmental StudiesIntroduction to Coppicing

Each one is a real unit registered against this qualification.

How you’d practise it

You don’t watch this. You do it.

You are not assessed on remembering this. You are assessed on applying it, analysing it, evaluating it and producing something. So that is what the practice is: projects, role play and your own live cases, with a tutor in the room.

The Navigator The Navigator · your what-if tutor Illustration
The Navigator Your plan for “Planting and Staking a Tree” assumes the same two people are free in March. What have you seen that makes you slightly uneasy about that?
You One of them has been pulled onto the migration twice already. Probably fine.
The Navigator That is the thread worth pulling. Let us build the version where it happens a third time and find the move that works either way.
The same lesson on the real thing: the conversation in the middle, the thinking ladder on the left, and the criteria each answer is evidencing on the right.
  • Bring your own plan Create

    For “Planting and Staking a Tree” you bring the plan you are actually working on, not a case study. Zavmo pulls on the assumptions in it until the weak one shows.

  • Draft the real one Create

    You do “Conduct and Report on a Field Survey for Habitat Types” on a real document of your own. Zavmo works on the draft you have to send anyway, so the coursework and the job are the same piece of work.

  • Map a live decision Analyse

    “Valuing Equality and Diversity” runs on a decision you are facing now. Zavmo maps it with you and shows what the second-order effect looks like before you find out the slow way.

  • Lead it Apply

    “Team Work in Environmental Studies” is practised on the team you actually have. You talk through the call you are about to make, and Zavmo makes you say it the way you would say it to them.

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Carry out a Woodland Survey, one of this qualification's own units.

Carry out a Woodland Survey Level 1

Applied to your work in any of these jobs

Learners will develop skills to undertake woodland surveys using recognised methodologies, accurately record data, identify tree species, and understand relevant health and safety legislation and environmental good practice.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time. Teaching towards this qualification begins when you subscribe.

Your Plan Illustration

Built for Open Awards Level 1 Certificate in Conservation (RQF)

18 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Open Awards.

  1. Carry out a Woodland Survey
  2. Communication in the Workplace
  3. Conduct and Report on a Field Survey for Habitat Types
  4. Developing Self
  5. Ecology and Conservation
  6. Environmental Awareness

and 12 more in the full unit list below.

These are the real units of this credential, in its own order. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

Free tools

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Learned on your own work, taught one-to-one.

Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your free first module is Future Fluency, so you can see how the teaching works before you pay for anything.

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The title, level, credits, guided learning hours and unit learning outcomes on this page are taken from the Ofqual Register of Regulated Qualifications. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Where this data comes from.