The Skills Pyramid

How do you know how good you are at botany? How does a potential employer know what you are able to do? There are now few university degrees in Britain that provide the field identification skills that ecologists, conservationists and naturalists need, so it is difficult for employers to recruit suitably qualified people.

The situation is not much better in the voluntary sector. How can the BSBI know who is competent to do what? Botanical organisations have found it difficult to run ‘citizen science’ projects in recent years because few people have reliable identification skills, and many people do not have an accurate assessment of their abilities.

To address this deficit, the BSBI has designed the Botanical Skills Pyramid. Everyone can be assigned to a level of the pyramid, from beginner to expert and, once you know what skill level you are at, you can receive guidance on what you are qualified to do, and what you need to do to progress to a higher level.

What is a FISC?

A Field Identification Skills Certificate is a simple, affordable test that determines your botanical skill level on a scale from 1 (beginner) to 7 (expert). They are becoming established as the industry standard for assessing botanical survey skills.

The aim of the FISC is to measure your skills in real-life situations.

A FISC lasts a day and is fun to do. One of our aims to to make people less fearful of being assessed. Our evidence shows that there is no-one who can identify all plants correctly, so you do not need to worry that you might not be perfect. Your results will be confidential. Some consultancies send their staff on a FISC every year, to encourage them to gain skills and make progress.

Each test starts with a lab session, where the candidates are asked to name fresh specimens of 30 species collected around the British Isles. We then provide lunch and a chance to relax before the afternoon survey.

Next there is a site survey, where you spend a couple of hours recording as much as you can in a small, interesting site. We then compare what you have identified with what we know occurs there and work out what skill level you have.