Fully qualified tree surgeon

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

1 hour ago, Mark Bolam said:

Actually, that’s not true, we use ‘Arb Contractors’ when necessary.

 

Nice and grey....

At risk of appearing "shady" (heaven forbid) it kind of depends who yome talking to as well...

 

If Bob wants 10' off the top of the Pittosporum which has been left to grow wild for the past 25 years there's not much point getting into tree physiology with him, just climb in the bush and get busy one-handing the topper.  Van sign writing could just as easily be "Fully Insured, Free Quotes, No job too small" = jobber.

 

But if yome at the local botanical gardens punting for a veteranisation programme you might put your best jeans on, polish your boots, brush your teeth, clean the truck and talk like you knows what yome talking about = arborist

 

🤣

 

 

 

 

[spuddog0507]

There is a lot to be said about this subject, there is lads who i have worked with over the years that have claimed they are fully qualified but to be honest they know jack shit, some of these lads have strung jobs out that could of been done in a quarter of the time, Now thats down to expierance, they go get there NPTC tickets and that makes them qualified but its only very basic ? its like passing your driving test, once you have past your driving test you then start to learn how to drive, what i have found over the years is most lads go to either collage for a year or two or just do the chainsaw and climbing tickets  and thats it, they then think they are a fully qualified tree surgeon/arborist ? I know quite a lot of tree surgeons and most just seem to have minimal certification, ground saw up to 380mm climbing  and use of saw from a rope and harness, there is very few that will have trees over 380mm and a windblown ticket but they still take these tasks on, One very sound lad i work with now and then asked me to go with him and his other 2 lads to sort some storm damage trees out, not massive trees but big enough at 30" diameter, his answer to me when i asked him what do you want a old fart like me there for was because if your there we will get em done in the day, if we do it we will F--k up and will there about 3 days, well we went, set a hand winch up cut one tree pulled it back and down on the deck, next was a uprooted beech that was still stood on its own so just dropped that one and the last one a syc that was snapped off and hung up in another beech, put pully up on another tree and winched back and down, one of his lads went up and sorted a few hangers out and trimmed some broken ends off, we where  done for just gone 3 all log left on site and chip just spread on the ground, this lad employed me and paid me very well for what i would of said was a steady days work, but its like he said i have 30 yrs more experianc than him and it shows as he addmited he was a bit out of his depth, another lad with who has a big scar across his forehead which he recieved while doing a windbown scotts pine in a back garden, now if he had known how to deal with that tree he would not have the said scar across his fore head, so what does actually make us qualified ???? its a 65 millon doller question that one and i dont think any one can say they are fully qualified ?? as it dont mater how old you are or how much expierance we have we will all ways, either learn something new or find a slightly better /faster way to some thing, so in m view i dont think any one can say they are fully qualified, i may be wrong on that but i think that is a very fair way to put it,

Edited January 26, 2021 by spuddog0507
spelling

[Cactusjack1993]

Would a RFS certificate not be as close as it gets to the term? Something I'm looking to achieve in the long run 

[Chris at eden]

6 hours ago, Cactusjack1993 said:

Would a RFS certificate not be as close as it gets to the term? Something I'm looking to achieve in the long run 

The RFS is a level 2 qualification.  Its realistically been superseded by the ABC level 2 Arb.  Mainly because you can progress up to L4 and L6 as you get older.  You could go to L4 ABC from RFS cert but they are not specifically designed to build on each other.  

 

Its used to go RFS cert, AA Tech Cert, and RFS Diploma in that order, same as the ABC go L2, L4, L6.  Tech cert was replaced by ABC L4, and RFS dip was replaced by ABC L6.  It was done like this because they didn't particularly flow well together.   

 

For some reason, even though they did the ABC L2, some folk are still delivering the RFS Cert.  Mainly Myerscough, i suppose because they do foundation degrees and honours degree for the higher education stuff rather than L4 and L6 dip. 

 

I would say if you want a real top spec academic qualification for a tree surgeon you would be looking at L4 Diploma.  Obviously, all your CS units on top of that.  I know tree surgeons that have L4.  They are pretty rare though.   

 

Like someone else said, you only need to be qualified for the tasks you are doing.  This fully qualified thing is nonsense.  No one is ever fully qualified.  You will always find more training if you are that way inclined.    

 

 

 

[Paddy1000111]

I have no idea what a "Fully qualified tree surgeon" would mean. I guess technically it would be CS30,31,32,34,35,38,39,40,41,UA1,UA2,UA5 etc as you would be able to do any tree job and you wouldn't have to do any courses. Outside of that you become an arboricultural surveyor if you're talking about book learning? 

 

Then again in an advertising sense you could be a fully certificated tree surgeon in the sense that you have all the certificates for the work you do? "Fully certificated, Fully insured" just means for the work you do, doesn't mean that I have a pilots licence and insurance for brain surgery 

[Chris at eden]

41 minutes ago, Paddy1000111 said:

I have no idea what a "Fully qualified tree surgeon" would mean. I guess technically it would be CS30,31,32,34,35,38,39,40,41,UA1,UA2,UA5 etc as you would be able to do any tree job and you wouldn't have to do any courses. Outside of that you become an arboricultural surveyor if you're talking about book learning? 

 

Then again in an advertising sense you could be a fully certificated tree surgeon in the sense that you have all the certificates for the work you do? "Fully certificated, Fully insured" just means for the work you do, doesn't mean that I have a pilots licence and insurance for brain surgery 

Level 2 qualifications are aimed at tree surgeons not surveyors.  Entirely relevant to tree surgeons. I had L2 when I was working as a tree surgeon.  You won’t get a decent surveying job with L2.  I know what you are saying, the CS units are more important I agree, but there is no harm in having some academic grounding if that is your thing.
 

 L4 is cross over between tree surgeon and surveyor. It’s probably a bit much though unless you are doing a bit of both.  It’s useful to know TPOs inside out though.  You see some right nonsense on here that tree surgeons are checking because they have been told something by a TO. The one the other day about needing to apply to remove ivy springs to mind.  It was actually being debated but it’s just nonsense. 
 

Also, UA5 is surveying, not tree surgery.   Not sure I would call any of that UA stuff tree surgery.