Landscape and rural affairs minister Jonathan Shaw visited the Breamish Valley to meet trainees from the third intake of the National Park's traditional boundaries traditional skills training programme.
The trainees were repairing dry-stone walls in the valley and were presented with their end-of-year qualifying certificates.
Mr Shaw said: "I congratulate the successful trainees whose new skills will help to conserve and enhance the National Park's landscape.
"National Parks are not just beautiful countryside but places where people want to live and work, and with government support they are helping to generate business, tourism, jobs and sustainable communities while doing what's good for wildlife and the environment."
Mr Shaw also dropped in for tea with John and Annie Foggin at Tosson Tower Farm to hear how local tourism businesses work with the park authority.
His final stop was the sandstone ridge of Simonside to see the authority's work with the Forestry Commission, Natural England and members of the community preserving the natural and cultural heritage of the European Special Area of Conservation.
John Riddle, Northumberland National Park chairman, said: "The National Park Authority has extensive expertise in rural life and communities. We pride ourselves on making every funding pound work harder and we've proven our methods in a number of small, forward-looking, community-based schemes.
"However, the funding environment is getting tighter and as the least-funded National Park in the country, the authority is finding it harder to properly resource priority areas of work.
"We hope to demonstrate to Mr Shaw that enhanced and fairer funding would enable these schemes to be rolled out across the National Park and, with the help of our partners, expanded across the county."