If I Were A Carpenter...

Ever since 2006 tumbled away into the ether, I've been brooding about what exactly I'll be bringing to Skye in terms of skills and practicality, especially with regards to making a living - we'll have to pay that plot-and-build mortgage with something.  While I may currently make my living in the middle echelons of the Scottish Civil Service, there's no guarantee that I'll still be able to work for that particular agency when the time comes to  move away from Edinburgh and into the Green.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed, eyes open and dropping hints into every high-powered ear I can get hold of that there'll be a working-from-home option enabled in the next few years via the internet - or, failing that, satellite branches of the agency opened in Highland and Island locations.  But... that may not happen - and even if it does, without another career or ability to fall back on I could feel worryingly insecure.  Far better to know that there'd be other ways to make my living over there, rather than having to scamper back to the cities because the only thing I knew was the workings of bureaucracy.  So, what to do?

On page 291 of his essential-for-this-sort-of-thing book (right), John Seymour writes

...do not despair if you cannot see how this will happen - life has a strange way of filling spaces.

Sadly I don't trust life any further than I can throw it and have no intention of going west without contingency scenarios planned and back-ups in place.  Thankfully, he then follows this with

Remember there are nothing like enough good craftsmen in the world - plumbing, electrics, mechanics, carpentry, basket making and so on are all things you can learn.  But many city folk do have skills that find use in the countryside - computer use, accounts, marketing, nursing, and teaching for example.

While he's got a perfectly valid point there, I wouldn't dare underestimate how net-savvy the people of Skye and the other Islands already are - after all, a lot of business done up there relies on either online orders or online publicity (such as the B&B we only discovered thanks to Google Ads, though their site is down at the moment).  What else can I offer?  Art skills, absolutely, but then Skye is practically groaning with the number of artists already living there - though going by some of the work I've seen on sale I could paint a few of them under the table - and it seems an awfully tenuous way to pay the bills without any other money-making to back it up.  Animation?  Ha!  Take the insecurity of art, multiply it by a million, and that's how reliable I see an animation income - so no chance there.

Okay, what about that civil service experience?  There's a few potentials there, most notably branches of the Highland Council, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and the Forestry Commission, though I suspect Skye-based vacancies at any of these would be pretty damn rare (hence the irregular checking of their sites... just in case).  More promising would be Qinetiq, with their BUTEC base near Kyle of Lochalsh, though it's worth bearing in mind this would, in a roundabout way, mean becoming one tiny part of the military-industrial complex.  Is this something I could be comfortable with, if it meant I could afford to live in Skye?  I honestly can't say right now.  After all, from what I've seen, there's a fair few positions there I could fill quite easily, and I suspect it pays jolly well.

If not that, well... there's always my previous experience in shops and warehouses, but do I really want to go back to that sort of thing?  The public, in particular, can be bloody annoying to deal with, though with the relatively small population of Skye this might not be such a bother...   Then there's dream employers like the Isle of Skye Brewery and the Talisker Distillery, though I don't have an ounce of knowledge relevant to either beyond the fact that their products taste very very nice indeed.  While I'd be very happy to learn the ways of brewing or distilling, I doubt either institution would have any desire to take in a total n00b.

At which point I start to run out of options with my present experience and qualifications.  The answer?  Get some new ones!  Skye is home to Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the only 100% Gaelic college in the world, with all the employment opportunities that entails, administrative or otherwise.  If I can really get to grips with the Gaelic in the next few years - beginning this September with Gaelic for Beginners at Broughton High and helped along by practice with my Lass, other speakers and websites like the BBC's bonkers Colin and Cumberland and rather more restrained Beag air Bheag - this could be close to ideal.

What else?  Just one back-up plan is never enough, so here's the second and more substantial.  One of the driving interests I have about moving to Skye is to lead a far more sustainable, environmentally-friendly existence, from using renewable energy to growing our own carrots to building a passivhaus.  This article on environmental careers from the Guardian back in November last year makes inspiring reading, particularly

"If you choose to work in an area like environmental planning, you'll never be out of work, and they'll always be a lot of diverse options open to you" says recruitment expert Ben Humphreys of Eden Brown, who specialise in public sector careers in the environment. "There are lots of other roles too. You could be out enforcing environmental policy, working in arboriculture taking care of trees, or getting involved in regeneration projects."

While I don't imagine there'll be many regeneration projects going on up there, environmental policy enforcement would be certainly be a necessity on Skye as with anywhere else - and then there's

Checking planning permission, and visiting premises to check that legislation hasn't been contravened is all in a day's work for many planning officers.  Even public-sector roles not directly related to the environment can also have plenty of scope for saving the planet. Many councils are now training staff to effectively implement environmentally friendly procedures, even if this is not their primary remit. Taking an NVQ in environmental management, for example, has become an option for public sector managers looking to expand their skills and manage the ecological impact of their department. "A lot of councils want to implement environmental policies," explains NVQ tutor Sarah Eyre of training company Enviro Focus. "Awareness is definitely increasing, as are the number of companies looking to certify their staff in this area."

Although the people quoted in the above article could potentially be biased due to the very positions they hold, it still sounds  plausible - after all, I've already seen environmental policy take root at the agency I work for in Edinburgh.  If I could take my interest in all things eco to an academic and professional level, the potential for employment would be great, even in a low population density area like the Highlands & Islands.  Therefore, inspired by other Vox-based chums, I've decided to go the way of the Open University, specifically..

Open University: Environment
Possibly Working for our Environment: Technology for a Sustainable Future (Level 1)
Definitely Environment (Level 2)

The Level 2 Environment course sounds fascinating (I'm hoping I can skip the Level 1 course thanks to my previously acquired HND, even if it was in Animation) and opens up a number of possibilities, both professionally and academically.  Taking the OU courses further, there's the BA/BSc in Environmental Studies, an Advanced Diploma in Environmental Decision Making, others along those lines.   It'll take years, of course - we're talking about attaining a university-level education from distance study part-time - but if somethings worth doing, it's worth doing right.  For now I'll continue with my weekend classes in life drawing, but they'll probably have to stop once I start any OU courses, partly for the time, mainly for the financial cost.  Granted, I'm too late to start the Environment (Level 2) course this year, so the earliest start date for that would be January 2008 but, as this whole blog should ultimately attest to, the more time I have to plan, the better the outcome.

I had hoped to also ramble about desires to learn woodwork, electrics, more hands-on skills that would be of practical - rather than administrative - use on Skye, but that can happily wait for another time.  Instead, your reward for making it this far is a lovely cover of a Carpenters song by the very good Engineers.  I chose it because, now and then, it's easy to daydream how much easier things moving to Skye would be if I just made my living from chairs, tables and cupboards.  I'm sure it wouldn't, but you know how daydreams are.