QGIS Training Made Easy for Ecology Consultancies
What's the Best QGIS Training for Ecology Consultancies?
Running a small ecology consultancy usually means wearing several hats, all at once; costing up jobs, chasing licences, site visits, writing reports at 9pm, and somehow keeping the team's QGIS skills up to scratch too. Training rarely gets the attention it deserves, simply because there's never quite enough hours in the week to sort it properly.
I've had this conversation with a fair few practice owners now, so I thought it might be helpful to run through the QGIS training options, and explore some of the pros and cons of each.
Professional-Body and GIS Training Courses
Generally well regarded, and easy to prove you have accrued CPD points. I've run plenty for CIEEM and FSC myself, and they're great for one person looking to upskill. Not so great for a whole team, as it can be tricky to get everyone booked on the same course. And if you manage that, there would be delegates from other organisations attending too. Plus it's the days of lost billable time, the fee, and a one-off event only ever covers what's taught on the day.
Self-Study QGIS Training Courses
Good for the scheduling headache; no need to block out a day, you can fit the training in around your schedule as and when you have time. What it doesn't fix is the "stuck at 4pm on a Thursday" problem (i.e. the need for ongoing support). You’ll find quite a few useful reference points (I hope!) in these Insight articles, for instance, this one about modernising reptile surveys with QGIS.
Bespoke QGIS Training Courses
Often more relevant than a generic QGIS course because the content is designed in collaboration with you, in response to your particular issues. So you get a day (or 2), with your team, focused, for instance, on your BNG mapping workflow, or learning how to build survey apps with Qfield or Mergin Maps. I really enjoy developing and delivering custom courses for clients. They are so focused, and it’s fun for a team to learn together. But it’s still a single event: booked, attended, done, and you could be sourcing another one in six months.
The Pattern Behind Every QGIS Training Option
Put side by side, a pattern starts to appear:
Course-based training gives you depth, but only for one topic, at that moment, for whoever happens to be in the room.
Self-study gives you flexibility, but no one to turn to when you get stuck.
Bespoke sessions give you relevance to your real workflows, but still end the moment the session does.
None of the above solve the risk small practices often carry: that QGIS competence often lives in one or two heads, and when they're on leave, or out on field visits, or move on, the whole team's mapping ability goes wobbly. I've written before about exactly this risk, and how to build a mapping workflow that doesn't depend on any one person, in Part 3 of our workflow series: People; which would be worth a read, alongside Part 1 on building accurate, efficient and standardised mapping workflows.
The Easiest QGIS Training Option for Ecology Consultancies
This is the gap that got me building Spatialsesh membership. Instead of training as a series of one-off bookings, it becomes something the whole team can dip into as things come up:
24/7 access to the course library and video content, so a wall hit on a Sunday evening doesn't mean waiting for the next course date.
Quick reference videos built around real ecological problems rather than generic GIS tutorials.
A monthly live Q&A when members can bring an actual mapping headache and get it sorted in real time.
None of this replaces a good in-depth course; there's still a place for those, especially when someone's building their QGIS skills from scratch. Or when a team wants to address specific issues, and get the additional benefits of learning together. But for a small practice trying to keep a whole team up to date and consistent, is it not better to have the training available 24/7 for long after a single course would have wrapped up?
For a more in depth discussion on why QGIS skills matter for an ecologist's own career, not just the practice's output, see 11 Reasons Why Learning QGIS Benefits an Ecologist's Career.
Ready to Make QGIS Training Easy for Your Team?
If you're a practice owner weighing this up, it maybe worth thinking less about which single course to book next, for which staff member, and more about whether what you need isn't a course at all; but a service available to all staff, that’s there whenever the next question comes up.
That's exactly what Spatialsesh Community membership is built for. Have a look at what's included, and see whether you think there’s an easier way to keep your whole team confident in QGIS, all year round.
If you would like to set up a chat about membership options, you can email matt@maplango.com