our trainees
Our build trainee programme: learning together
Our traineeshiP: Building differently
Our Sustainable Build and Landscaping Traineeship is a structured, paid programme dedicated to training young people (ages 18–25) in sustainable design and building, heritage crafts and landscaping skills. Four cohorts of four young people join us for four months each during different phases of the build programme and are separated into earth building, wood & timber framing, sustainable landscaping and planting the garden. Each phase of this build programme is also supported by one of our Young Fellows - who we have trained in Action Research to support our evaluation and creative documentation.
All cohorts differ in focus, but they each engage in reflective practice, learn traditional crafts and building skills, undertake field trips, create a final showcase and learn to facilitate and lead volunteer sessions and community build days. To date, we have completed three cohorts with the fourth underway, what have we all learned so far?
Cohort One: Earth Building
From May - September 2024, cohort one focused on the history and practice of cob building, exploring and experimenting with clay, water, and straw. They received specialist training from Earth Building UK and Ireland and attended ClayFest 2024 to explore different uses of cob from experts which included a tour around the brick factory and a tour of various local projects in which clay plasters and unfired clay bricks had been used, including Bellenden Nursery and a 500 year renovation of a timber frame building with clay plastered walls.
Key Achievements
Constructing a prototype CobBauge Wall
Learning how to test cob, make mixes and teaching this at facilitated cob community build days with local residents, universities, local organisations and our youth programme the generators.
Facilitating a Cob workshop at Build Fest 2025 and held a showcase event for partners and funders involving various workshops to demonstrate their knowledge of cob techniques
Cohort TWO: Wood & Timber
From October 2024 to January 2025 cohort two specialised in traditional timber skills, including making sweet chestnut shakes and traditional timber stud walling. This cohort also stayed at Wilderness Woods to learn about coppicing sweet chestnut, and visited the Weald & Downland Living Museum to witness these crafts in numerous heritage buildings on the site.
Key Achievements
Learning to use shave horses, traditional carpentry tools such as froes & draw knives
Making a bench using traditional hand tools and building woven willow traditional East Anglian Hurdles
Making sweet chestnut shingles using hand techniques and cladding our kitchen building
Building the kitchen timber frame using UK grown timber.
CohoRt Three: Sustainable Landscaping
From August - December 2025, cohort three turned their attention to the garden, with a focus on learning about permaculture, designing and building brown roofs, building keyhole planters and planting native hedgerow. They deepened their learnings gaining a Permaculture Design Course qualification with our partner organisation Roots n Permaculture. This cohort has also visited gardens by biodiversity expert John Little and Martin Crawford’s Forest Garden at the Agroforestry Research Trust in Devon to help shape their thinking and inform their designs.
Key Achievements
Designing and implementing a green roof incorporating 4 different substrate mixes, composed primarily of repurposed material found on site at the Story Garden and from construction waste at the Triangle Site.
Researching our forest garden: Trainees researched the height, flowering period, growing conditions, and uses of different species to ensure that we selected plants suitable to the condition of the Triangle Site.
Bricklaying an accessible keyhole planter in the polytunnel
Auditing and selecting appropriate plants to take from the Story Garden
Cohort Four: Eco-Horticultural Gardening
From February - July 2026, cohort four continued to focus on the garden. They installed the forest garden, our edible forest comprising of top fruit, soft fruit, ground cover and climbers; the compost garden, our nutrient-rich food growing area made out of hugel mounds; the rubble garden, our nutrient-poor area using construction waste as the substrate for drought tolerant plants to grow; and the pond. They created additional habitats in the garden such as standing dead wood and log piles. They learnt heritage skills including willow fencing, cleft fencing and slate working. They also visited the Millennium Seed Bank in Wakehurst and attended a forest garden workshop with Rakesh from Roots & Permaculture at Edible Landscapes in Finsbury Park.
Key achievements
Researching, designing and installing a wildlife pond, created using predominantly repurposed materials and plants.
Creating our forest garden, compost garden and rubble garden, which included both hard and soft landscaping, planting trees, shrubs and annuals, and working within agroecological/permaculture principles.
Learning and teaching heritage crafts, including willow weaving, cleft fencing and slate working.
Supporting work experience placements and volunteer sessions, including the Harington Scheme, twilight build & garden, community days and corporate volunteering. This included leading activities and facilitating small groups.
TrackIng our impact
Since this is our first time running this format of educational programme alongside our build, we wanted to understand how it worked differently. We are working with the team from Tranquil City to evaluate the impact of the traineeship programme on the young trainees themselves. This evaluation process uses a mix of survey and interviews to understand their own feelings about their wellbeing, community and nature connection, their environmental attitudes and behaviours and their skills and knowledge development alongside their overall experiences of the programme. It follows all four cohorts from beginning to end, but some early insights from the first two cohorts have been positive. The results show that confidence after the programme is significantly boosted, more than double across both cohorts.
Continuing the Journey
The final phase of the current traineeship programme is completing in 2026. We are keen to continue a version of the programme focusing on green skills for the future. If you would like to support and help develop the next phase of the programme to help inspire even more young people, please reach out to the team.
Our Build Trainees
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Flow
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Karari
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Connie
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Lillie
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Zak
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Iyanu
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Lara
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Em
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Famke
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Kian
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Betsey
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Isabel
Reflecting & Growing: blogs by the trainees
A key part of our learning process is ongoing reflection, both individually and as a group. Each trainee is able to think deeply about what they are learning and how they feel throughout the months they work with us. We practice sharing and open dialogue in a group setting, learning from our own and others' reflections. Some of these can then take the form of stories, which we have catalogued on our website under Stories from the Build. This includes contributions from our trainees, our action researcher and other members of the wider team.
Stories by CohorT
Cohort One:
Meet the Trainees, Cohort 1, Build Trainees
We are Brick Makers, Flow Bracey
Building the past and dreaming of the impossible, Samika Barclays
Who am I? What am I, Samika Barclays
Cohort Two:
Meet the Trainees, Cohort 2, Build Trainees
Triangle Ramblings, Lara Anand
Building Slow, Iyanu Ogunbowale
Learning New Skills, Zak Philip
We’ve Built a Building, Em Aldridge
Cohort Three:
Meet the Trainees, Cohort 3, Build Trainees
Dead Wood: What I learnt from John’s little and Martin Crawford’s Gardens, Betsey Patterson
Reflecting on Waste and Circular Economies, Famka Brittles
Cultivating Urban Forests, Isabel Davies
Rethinking Farming, Restoring the Earth, Famka Brittles
John Little and Gabion Mosaics, Samika Barclays
Making the Polytunnel Planters, Kian Franklin
Cohort Four:
Meet the Trainees, Cohort 4, Build Trainees
watch and LearN
We have been capturing stories and learnings all the way along and these can be seen on our Instagram and Youtube channels.
We work hard to have an inclusive site culture, open for children and families to learn together. Cassie, ex-fellow and now a member of staff, filmed a video showing the behind the scenes of one of our community build scenes. Watch more of our Sustainable Build Content.
help build a greener future
Our own build may now be complete, but garden programming continues and the team is now supporting other organisations to develop and run their own community builds. Email alice@globalgeneration.org.uk if you’re interested in starting your own build project or donate to support ongoing sustainable building.
Our Community Build is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to support our build trainee programme and community build of our Triangle Site - our permanent home!
Businesses, Get involved!
We are currently looking for partners who can donate time, money, materials or professional services to help with the Triangle Site’s build.
To learn more contact generate@globalgeneration.org.uk or
find out more
Visit the site
The site is not yet open to the public outside of our community build events.
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“Architecture often prioritizes speed over longevity, forgetting that buildings grow and change alongside us and the planet. Working with Global Generation, I’ve seen how time can be embraced—used to grow, teach, and create in a fast-paced city like London. ”
