Open College Network West Midlands · RQF Level 2
Open College Network West Midlands Level 2 Certificate in Environmental Conservation and Heritage
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 2
- Total credits15
- Guided learning139 hours
- Units in this qualification24
Awarded by Open College Network West Midlands · on the Ofqual register
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See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
These are the units Open College Network West Midlands 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, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Biological Field Identification SkillsReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles of taxonomy.
- Use a scientific key to identify species.
- Collect, record and identify specimens from a field site.
- Apply appropriate Health and Safety procedures when carrying out a field survey.
Carry out Habitat ManagementReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Carry out habitat maintenance tasks.
- Understand the need to manage vegetation.
- Manage vegetation in a habitat.
- Work safely and minimise environmental damage.
Carry out Wetland ManagementReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Carry out wetland maintenance tasks.
- Select, use and maintain equipment for maintaining suitable site conditions for wetland.
- Work according to job specifications.
- Work safely and minimise environmental damage.
Carry out Woodland ManagementReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Carry out woodland maintenance tasks.
- Select, use and maintain equipment for maintaining suitable site conditions for woodland.
- Work according to job specifications.
- Work safely and minimise environmental damage.
Control Pests, Diseases and DisordersReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Control pests, diseases and disorders.
- Select, use and maintain relevant equipment.
- Work safely and minimise environmental damage.
- Control pests, diseases and disorders.
- Know relevant health and safety legislation and environmental good practice.
- Know the types of equipment required and how to maintain them.
Control of Invasive SpeciesReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Identify invasive species in the field.
- Remove invasive species.
- Understand legal requirements for removal of invasive species.
- Work safely in the field to remove invasive species.
Coppice ProductsReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles of coppice products as a sustainable way of producing timber.
- Know the process of sorting and grading timber for a variety of different products.
- Use a range of hand tools for making coppice products.
- Understand health and safety procedures when using tools.
- Make charcoal.
- Understand health and safety procedures when working in the woodland.
- Make a coppice product.
- Produce a coppice product safely.
CoppicingReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the theory of coppice management.
- Know coppice trees.
- Know the uses of hand tools used in coppicing.
- Maintain hand tools used in coppicing.
- Understand how to assess and plan a coppice fall before starting work.
- Carry out a risk assessment in a coppicing context.
- Undertake a coppice fall.
- Prepare coppiced material.
- Undertake coppice restoration.
- Know the principles of natural regeneration.
- Control coppice wood pests.
- Know the effects of coppicing on woodland biodiversity.
Environmental Action in CommunitiesReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Know environmental factors affecting communities.
- Raise awareness of environmental issues within a community.
- Support community groups in taking environmental action.
Field Survey SkillsReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Know about field survey schemes.
- Plan a field survey.
- Conduct a site based field survey using recognised techniques.
- Report on a field survey.
- Follow Health and Safety procedures when carrying out a field survey.
Grassland ManagementReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Establish and protect grassland vegetation.
- Select, use and maintain equipment for maintaining suitable site conditions for grassland.
- Work according to job specifications.
- Work safely and minimise environmental damage.
Green WoodworkReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Know the materials and tools required in green woodwork.
- Prepare wood for a specific purpose.
- Use appropriate tools to complete green woodworking projects.
- Comply with health and safety standards for working with green wood.
Health and Safety in a Practical EnvironmentReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Know the Health and Safety requirements, procedures and equipment relevant to their work environment.
- Recognise and manage risk in their work environment by following safe working practices.
Hedge LayingReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the reasons for laying hedges.
- Know which species are suitable for hedge laying.
- Know different styles of hedge laying.
- Know a range of hand tools used in hedge laying.
- Care for and maintain hand tools used in hedge laying.
- Assess risk in hedge laying.
- Lay a hedge.
- Understand methods used to restore old and neglected hedges.
Heritage ResearchReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Gather information on the history of the local area.
- Select information on the history of the local area, relevant to a specific brief.
- Present information on the history of the local area.
- Review own research.
Plan a Community ProjectReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the importance of forward planning for a community project.
- Engage communities in planning a community project.
- Support community project planning.
Plant nomenclature, terminology and identificationReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the terminology used in naming plants
- Understand how the parts of plants can aid identification
- Identify and name plants using botanical names
- Work safely and minimise environmental damage
Practical skills for dry stone wallingReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Dismantle a wall
- Lay foundations
- Construct a wall
Publicity for Community GroupsReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Know the importance of publicity for community groups.
- Know about media used for publicity purposes.
- Know the components of publicity plans.
- Use different methods of publicity within a plan.
- Respond to queries resulting from publicity.
Sharpening and Maintenance of Edged Hand ToolsReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Know the structure and function of a range of edged hand tools.
- Know the reasons for sharpening and maintaining tools.
- Know a range of sharpening devices.
- Sharpen a range of edged tools.
- Repair a range of edged tools.
- Undertake tool maintenance.
- Carry out a risk assessment for sharpening an edged tool.
Supporting Community EventsReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Assist in the planning and delivery of a community event.
- Know the health and safety responsibilities of event organisers.
- Provide support to publicise a community event.
- Review a community event.
Sustainable Woodland ManagementReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles of woodland sustainability.
- Understand the key principles and processes of woodland management planning.
- Know about the history of UK woodland management.
- Know about present woodland law and licence requirements.
- Know a range of methods of coppice management and timber processing.
- Understand relevant safe working practice in woodland management.
Using Tools and EquipmentReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Use a range of tools and equipment for an activity.
- Use a range of tools and equipment for an activity.
- Care for, maintain and store a range of tools and equipment.
Wildlife and HabitatsReal unit · Open College Network West Midlands
What you'll be able to do
- Know about different habitats.
- Know the main groups of animals and plants.
- Use a key or guide to identify plant and animal species.
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 2 credits are regulated. 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’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Cut, Process and Extract Coppice Legacy
- Lay a Hedge Legacy
- Plan and evaluate for coppice management Legacy
- Plan and oversee field surveys
- Process coppice materials and green wood products Legacy
- Sharpen and Maintain Edged Hand Tools Legacy
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your own work
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for Open College Network West Midlands Level 2 Certificate in Environmental Conservation and Heritage
24 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Open College Network West Midlands.
- Biological Field Identification Skills
- Carry out Habitat Management
- Carry out Wetland Management
- Carry out Woodland Management
- Control Pests, Diseases and Disorders
- Control of Invasive Species
and 18 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.