Career change

[Nathj88]

Hi all new to the forum not sure if this is necessarily in the right place.

I've been considering a change of career for some time and arboriculture does take my interest a lot. My questions to you all are:

Would you say coming into it at 32 is a bit late on?

What advice would you give someone looking to come into it?

Are there any courses you would recommend to do prior to gaining employment?

As well as the nptc/lantra courses i have also seen level 2 distance learning courses offered by hcc etc, are these worth doing and what sort of content can you expect from them?

 

A little more about myself.... I'm 32 and currently work as a scaffolder have been doing for the last 14 years, I'm not scared of a tough days work and capable of using initiative. Live in the west Midlands. Realise with how current things are that now would not be a good time to move jobs/careers but thought with spare time might be worth starting to look at things more seriously.

 

Any advice or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks

[Mark Bolam]

I can’t think of a worse time to try and get into it, nothing to do with being 32.

[otter]

Agreed. Not a good time,

I started climbing At 34. 50 now and still climb (not as much)

[Rough Hewn]

Yeah, bad timing.
32, you'll be fine.
Good luck [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

[Dan Maynard]

It's a gamble either way though isn't it? Could be a massive recession and lots of trees left for another year, firms not hiring. Then again a consistent thread over the last years on recruitment is it's difficult to find good climbers or reliable groundies.

Scaffolding is a bit of an up and down industry I'd have thought as well, presumably mostly follows construction?

I guess everyone has different motivations, you will have the physical and outdoor aspects so maybe the question is whether you have the interest in trees. There is a lot of good material online to start reading, and some book recommendations on this forum. Personally I'd try that before you spend on the level 2 arb course. And the usual advice is try to get some days with a local firm but that might be a challenge at the moment.

[Nathj88]

Ye I agree the timing would be awful right now and for the near future, was just thinking along the lines of trying to do some learning and use the quiet time to prepare for future. I'm pretty fortunate at the minute that I have a relative amount of security in the job I'm in at the minute as much as can have in these times that is so im not looking for a immediate jump.

[Mark Bolam]

You sound pretty sensible mate, and you can obviously graft.

Learning without putting all your eggs in one basket could be worth a go.

 

Good luck with it.

[Nathj88]

Thanks mate, will have a bit more of a read through the forum and find some books to have a read up on.

[tree-fancier123]

two books would do to start - Tree Climbers Companion - Jeff Jepson

Trees - their use management cultivation and biology - Bob Watson.

Normally you could buy a basic climbing kit after reading the Jeff Jepson book, and or watching something like the entire Climbing Arborist video collection on Youtube, then go into some woods, preferably with a mate, and have a go at setting a line over a fork and hauling yourself up into a tree. However even practising low and slow could still cause an accident. Not a good time to be getting air lifted to A&E. This practising alone in the woods was great fun for me though, in fact I think tree climbing can be a great recreational persuit, as well as exciting work.

[IronMike]

It depends if you want to climb, or be a ground based worker. I got into tree surgery at 30, with zero experience. I worked dragging brash and soaked up as much info as I could from the lads I worked with. I got my basic felling tickets and they did me for years. I personally found learning on the job to be the best way, I got a lot more from it than any course I've been on for the most part. Fast forward 8/9 years and I now have my own niche forestry business and I'm happy to say I enjoy my work which is a rare thing for most people I reckon. 

 

You definitely sound like a grafter, so I'd say go for it.