WIELDING a chainsaw is all in a day’s work for 19-year-old Sasha Fraser.

As a countryside ranger with Oxford City Council, she can be found felling trees, clearing woodland, dealing with livestock, mowing lawns and landscape gardening across 900 acres of country parks and nature reserves.

And after completing a two-year apprenticeship last June, the former Cherwell School pupil is now the council’s only female countryside ranger.

The two-year training programme also included learning about the maintenance of parks, cemeteries and fine turf.

And the City & Guild Level 2 and 3 apprenticeship in horticulture also included block release at Abingdon and Witney College and one-to-one tutoring on the job.

Ms Fraser’s days are spent at Port Meadow, Shotover Country Park, Lye Valley Nature Reserve to Iffley Meadow, Cowley Marsh or Magdalen Quarry.

She explained: “I can find myself doing any sort of jobs.

“It can be tough in cold weather but when you work outside, you don’t really notice.”

As thousands of students across Oxfordshire prepare to sit GCSE’s or A-Levels, many are unaware apprenticeship options have dramatically expanded during the past couple of years.

Ms Fraser, from Marston, said: “I was encouraged to go into sixth form then on to university but although I was academically capable, I knew it wasn’t for me.

“I spotted a gardening apprenticeship and as I loved gardening club when I was small, I decided to go for it.”

After starting on just £8,000-a-year, Sasha now earns £18,000.

She added: “Hands-on work was the biggest part of my apprenticeship.

“When you work with people who know their stuff, it makes a huge difference.”

City council cemeteries manager Trevor Jackson says three horticulture apprentices will be recruited this year.

He said: “Sasha got mainly A*’s and A’s in her GCSEs so could easily have gone to university, if she had wanted.”

Chloe Penniston is on track to be a lawyer, despite not having followed the traditional university path.

The 20-year-old, who lives near Banbury, has just finished a two-year apprenticeship with the Burnside Partnership in Combe, learning to draw up wills, power of attorney documents and handle probate. Her apprenticeship included half-a-day each week to study and revision days.

Having achieved Level 3 and now earning £14,000-a-year, she will carry on studying and hopes to be a qualified solicitor in four years.

She added: “A lot of text books and reading doesn’t work for me – I think it’s much easier when you are shown what to do.”