A career in forestry represents one of the most exciting, challenging and newest routes open to school-leavers this year. Over 80 additional places are now on offer for the first time through the CAO at three third-level colleges to cater for this rapidly expanding career path. These new courses have been developed in order to equip students with the necessary skills for this expanding forestry industry.

According to official figures, Ireland is projected to increase annual timber production to 3 million cubic metres by the year 2,000. Forests now occupy about eight per cent of the land area.

There has been unprecedented growth in the forestry sector in recent years. Coillte and private interests are now planting about 30,000 hectares of forest each year, although it will still take many years before we reach the 24 per cent European average.

At Waterford Institute of Technology, the new national diploma in science in forestry will address the demand for qualified forestry personnel at diploma level. It will help to ensure the more rapid absorption of changes and new ideas in procedures and services.

"It's an innovative programme at sub-degree level," explains John Griffith, head of chemical and life science at WIT. He says that the three-year programme will be an outdoor practical one - "that's the emphasis."

Last September, 16 students were taken on. This year, says Griffith, numbers will "depend on resources but we will certainly be taking in a similar number". The graduates from this course will be forestry personnel, providing a practical service to forest owners.

"This is the first time a national diploma programme has been available in the area of forestry," he says. "The industry is expanding a lot at the moment, particularly since Coillte took over. They have brought a commercial edge to forestry."

Griffith points out that there is now an end-user for the Irish forestry sector. He cites two large processing plants in particular which have opened up - the Masonite Corporation in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, and Louisianna Pacific in the Waterford estuary - "they are producing high quality products for the construction industry". He feels that these plants indicate the level of forestry development.

"People with diplomas can often go on to a degree programme," he says. However, the position in regard to graduates of the national diploma in science in forestry at WIT "has to be clarified in the future".

Minimum entry requirements for the course are five Leaving Cert passes at a level of grade D3 on ordinary level papers. They must include maths and either English or Irish. Some mature applicants may be considered.

In Tralee RTC, Brendan O'Donnell, at the department of engineering, says that this year the national certificate in agricultural engineering programme will allow students to specialise in forestry for the first time. In the past three years this specialisation was offered as an option to students but this year it will be a separate course. It has been introduced to address increasing mechanisation, he says.

"The course will be geared more towards the technical aspects of forestry rather than the planting of trees, the silviculture," says O'Donnell. The college will offer up to 35 places.

"Essentially jobs will be in the service industry to the forestry sector, which covers a broad spectrum, including any company supplying machinery equipment." Students who successfully complete the two-year course may go on to do the diploma in agricultural engineering at the college.

Forestry engineering is a specialised branch of engineering. The course will focus on forestry machinery as opposed to farm machinery. It is concerned with the design, manufacture, modification and maintenance of equipment used in the forestry industry.

It will also cover other aspects of agricultural engineering including drainage, reclamation and surveying. Forestry engineering technicians advise the land owner or forestry developer on land drainage, surveying, planting and harvesting, and on the selection and use of suitable equipment.

The forestry option is made available only if there are sufficient students registered in any given year. THE new national diploma in forest management at Galway RTC's engineering school expects to take in 32 students next September. Gerard MacMichael, head of the engineering school, says that one of the most interesting aspects of the course is the fact that the college has established international links, particularly with polytechnics in Finland.

Students will spend six months on industrial placements in second year. "The purpose of this," he says, "is to expose students to the practical aspect of the industry and to integrate the learning. They are much more mature after this."

The three-year course was designed after the college "got together with all the actors in the sector and they helped us to design this programme". McMichael explains that the course is not just geared at producing people who can develop and harvest wood for timber processing. There will be other jobs also. The course will prepare graduates to go into other areas such as tourism and agribusiness also. "There's an ethos that runs through the course that emphasises sustainable forest development."

Students will be under the department of building and civil engineering within the college. The course will provide the student with the practical, technical and administrative training necessary to enable them to practise as forest managers within the public and private sector of forestry. "It's a vocational course that is multi-disciplinary."

Course codes: The CAO course code for the national diploma course forestry at WIT is WD 076. The course code for the national certificate course at Tralee RTC is TL 640. At Galway, the course code for the national diploma course is GA 040.