The history of changes in forestry in the two countries has already been reviewed in Chapter 2. Essentially the history of forestry education has been one of disengagement from the state forest services and the development of new markets for graduates. As one respondent put it the "image of a German forester with his green jacket, dachshund and shotgun is fortunately changing and improving continuously. Forestry graduates compete well with graduates of other disciplines (e.g. biology, geography) on the environmental job market." Unfortunately it may not always be clear to potential applicants that a forestry qualification can provide the entrée to a wide range of job types apart from that of the typical image of a forester described above.
Increasingly foresters are taking positions with environmental organisations, including NGOs that once would not have admitted a forester into their buildings. In both countries there are increasing opportunities in urban forestry and arboriculture which are rapidly maturing from merely skilled trades to true professions. The money spent on trees in towns is considerably in excess of that spent on trees in the countryside. Foresters as professionals are also increasingly finding employment in the wood processing industries. A list of jobs obtained by one cohort of graduates would be long with no one employer or type of employer dominating. Forestry has become an extremely wide profession which gives real problems for curriculum design.
Forestry has never been the easiest profession in which to obtain first employment and forestry graduates often struggle in the year after graduating, sometimes including periods of unemployment. However, if looked at a year or two later the position in both Germany and Britain is distinctly encouraging with virtually all graduates being in some form of employment appropriate to their training. When discussing those who have graduated with technical diplomas one British respondent said that he could "think of only a few that are not still in forestry out of the 300+ graduates and the majority of them are in management positions". To this degree at least the curricula are serving the needs of employers.
Almost without exception the German universities have responded to the changing employment scene by introducing new and more flexible curricula which give "the chance to react dynamically to changes in the employment market" and are suitable not only to a wide range of jobs but also offer "niches for individuals". Greater emphasis is being placed on personal and social skills, including problem solving, to a certain extent at the expense of aspects of traditional technical training. There is also greater emphasis on interdisciplinary studies. Such developments are certainly educationally desirable but whether they have influenced recruitment is not so clear. For example the pattern of variations in enrolment year on year at Freiburg and Munich are essentially the same yet Freiburg introduced its radically new curriculum in 1994 and Munich not until 2000. There is absolutely no indication in the figures that Freiburg benefited over Munich by reason of being the first to implement change.
As one of the German respondents observed, as well as widening opportunities in forestry-related employment, including the timber industry, forestry graduates have also "found employment in very different professional areas, e.g. journalism, politics, agriculture or pedagogy. Of course forestry graduates must compete with graduates from specialised fields. But they profit by their broad knowledge about ecological, technical, economic and social matters and their ability to connect these fields to solve complex problems."
As in Germany the state forest service is only one among a wide range of employers. Also like Germany there are now a number of private management companies that together in Britain are very significant employers. A surprisingly high number of graduates also aspire to be self-employed. The response again has been one of widening the curriculum to, in the words of one respondent, "reflect the increasingly wide aspirations of students and the diverse nature of employment in the sector. This has resulted in tensions between the need for teaching the traditional subjects of silviculture, economics etc. and the emerging and important `new' subjects." Not only have curricula been widened but also new specialist qualifications have been introduced in subjects such as arboriculture (perhaps the only subject that is remaining consistently popular), agroforestry, environmental forestry, and forest industries technology.
A particular feature of forestry at many institutions in Britain is the large number of mature students enrolling (strictly defined as students over 21 years old but typically in their late twenties to mid-thirties). On some programmes mature students can represent 40% of the class. This does influence the delivery of teaching and has some impact on curriculum design.
Another influence on curriculum development in Britain in recent times has been the desire by universities and colleges to reduce expenditure on teaching by amalgamating or sharing classes. This is undoubtedly reducing the technical relevance of certain degree programmes but is not entirely unwelcome by some employers who see it as increasing interdisciplinary understanding and flexible thinking. However, it is only the larger employers, such as the state service, with significant in-service training schemes who can afford to take this attitude. Others still expect new graduates be able to pay their way from the outset. This tension is certainly an added difficulty in curriculum design.
