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Alongside our undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses and the amazing work of our degree apprentices, students are also welcome to get involved with a series of short courses, facilitated by the university and its partners. With a range of different qualifications that students can attain, it's a great asset to acquire different skills that compliment their studies overall.

We spoke to Jack Everist, a second year BSc (Hons) Wildlife Conservation and Environmental Management student, who is using drone skills to aid his ecological work.

Jack is currently working on the Permission for Commercial Operations (PfCO) course. He explained why he chose to take the course: "It's all about learning to expand my skill set; while drones let you take amazing photographs, they are also really valuable for a number of other uses.

"I've only been flying for a few months with my current license but I've been able to achieve some amazing things. As an ecologist, I wanted to make this short course relevant to my studies. So far I've been able to fly the drone near different sites to collect data, along with helping out with search and rescue during the terrible flooding recently."

Jack's course has been funded by his scholarship from the Millichope Foundation. Through them, he has been given the opportunity to use this new skill to work with them out on their parkland, identifying wildlife for data collection.

Jack spoke about the benefits of the course, saying: "Although the skill is niche - I only know one other person that flies a drone for ecological purposes - it does give me the extra edge. I'm hoping it will let me collect data for research more easily as well as work with different conservationists to help them get a visual on site where they might have before.

"Although a drone and the licensing are costly, I can see how having this piece of kit has great potential to help me with my work as well as being a hobby. I'm really enjoying it so far and can't wait to hopefully pass my license test and be further qualified to fly!"

To find out more about our short course opportunities, please click here. For more about scholarships and how the Development Trust can help you achieve more, click here.