How Can GIS Training Help Ecology Consultancies Onboard Faster and Cut Risk? A Bakerwell Case Study.
Bakerwell: a growing ecology consultancy across two offices
Bakerwell are a well known ecology consultancy in the Southeast of England. They provide an expert, innovative ecological consultancy service to help clients achieve planning permission and deliver biodiverse schemes.
Bakerwell deliver habitat and protected species surveys, BNG assessments and planning, mitigation and monitoring support. It's a bespoke service; but behind every report is GIS work that must be just as rigorous as the fieldwork itself.
The GIS challenge facing growing ecology consultancies
GIS is woven through everything an ecology consultancy delivers now, and Biodiversity Net Gain turned it into genuine spatial change analysis. So GIS becomes a real delivery, compliance and reputational risk when it goes wrong (we've written about that in more depth: how learning organisations reduce GIS risk in the age of BNG .
Errors often surface late, when time and margins are tightest. Bakerwell believe that botany and habitat knowledge sit hand in hand with GIS capability, and to reduce GIS delivery to one or two people without the knowledge is fragile, open to mistakes and places time constraints on GIS workflows.
The solution: GIS training built for ecology consultancies
Bakerwell's answer was to build what's sometimes called a Learning Organisation: one that embeds learning into everyday work, so GIS capability doesn't live and die with one or two people.
In practice, that meant Spatialsesh’s QGIS training; from GIS fundamentals, field survey with Qfield/Mergin Maps, and full BNG analysis workflows. Because it’s all built specifically for ecologists, it made it easy for Bakerwell staff to understand.
GIS onboarding that gets new starters up to speed fast
New starters; often trained on ArcGIS at university, rather than QGIS; now work through structured Spatialsesh courses in their first few weeks, rather than learning piecemeal from whoever's free.
“New ecologists become productive so much faster now. Instead of shadowing someone for weeks, they're working through proper training from day one; with library resources enabling early project contributions; and it's freed up experienced staff time that would have previously been required for this area of training.”
Fiona Baker, Director, Bakerwell
Building GIS skills people want to stick around for
Access to Spatialsesh has also become part of how Bakerwell invests in its people. Staff have swapped the stressful scramble of forums, YouTube and guesswork for a clear path to build GIS skills (more in 11 Reasons Why Learning QGIS Benefits an Ecologist's Career). By reducing the stress of GIS problem solving, Spatialsesh has become as much a retention tool as a training one.
“It's genuinely helped me feel more capable in my role. The resources provided are very clear and easy to understand. Spatialesh has helped me to develop key core QGIS knowledge for BNG-mapping; and gain the skills to run assessments myself.”
Nicole Holt, Assistant Ecologist, Bakerwell
One consistent GIS standard, across two offices
Bakerwell has grown across Kent and Sussex; and growth is exactly when GIS workflows tend to fragment (a challenge we cover in our four-part series on standardising ecology mapping workflows).
Every ecologist at Bakerwell now trains on the same courses and workflows, so reports comes out to the same high standard, whichever office it's from.
It’s a very nurturing culture, and to further support learning, consistency, and teamwork, Bakerwell run annual full-company training days. Spatialsesh has provided bespoke training for these (and enjoyed the delicious picnic lunches!).
“Running two offices, it would be easy for standards to drift without anyone noticing. Spatialsesh means everyone receives the same core training and regular updates on new features, so clients get the same quality wherever their project's handled from.”
Donna Popplewell, Director, Bakerwell
Delivering ecology projects faster with structured GIS training and Pro tools
With more of the team confident in QGIS and BNG workflows, work that once bottlenecked around one or two people now moves through the whole team, and costly errors come up far less often. And when Spatialsesh added Pro tools to the training, Bakerwell were early adopters, and are now find conducting Desk Studies, field survey, and BNG analysis that much easier.
Working independently, even when the office empties out
Bakerwell's ecologists are often out surveying, attending client meetings, or taking well earned annual leave. Spatialsesh's on-demand videos enable staff to solve problems themselves, rather than waiting for a colleague’s advice. Projects keep moving, even when the office is quiet.
Bakerwell also opted for extra peace of mind and booked some Spatialsesh Consultancy time, so that our staff are on-hand to troubleshoot should particularly tricky issues arise.
The result: a learning organisation built for the age of BNG
What Bakerwell has built is a Learning Organisation; capability that doesn't live in one or two staff. And a team across two offices that delivers consistent work under pressure.
“It's rare to find training that actually understands what ecology consultancies need. Spatialsesh has made a real difference to how we work; and how confident our team feels producing maps for any survey.”
Fiona Baker, Director, Bakerwell
Sound familiar?
Running a consultancy of your own, somewhere between a handful of staff and around 20, leaning on one or two people for all the GIS know-how? This is the gap Spatialsesh is built to close.
Take a look at Spatialsesh's GIS training and membership options for teams or drop me a line if you want to chat about your requirements: matt@maplango.com.