Qualifications

[KBS2021]

Afternoon all

 

I hope this hasn't been covered on the site already. I need some advise about NPTC/Lantra qualifications. I currently have CS30/CS31 chainsaw tickets, I obtained these because I use a chainsaw a lot on a farm with a commerical fruit orchard I work on a few days a week. I have to say I absoultey loved the courses I did and it got me thinking that I'd maybe like do a bit more and look for a job for a local gardening/lanscaping firm next year. As a potential employer in this industry, are these qualifactions enough to get through the door? I spoke to the local college and they don't have much planned at this moment in time (york) Is there anything anyone recommends with the exeption of doing a diploma, as I don't have the time. 

 

Thanks for reading

[5thelement]

It depends on what you intend to do in the future. 
You could do CS38/39 for aerial/climbing work. Or medium/wind blown tree tickets if you want to keep your feet on the ground.

[Treetom15]

There are quite a few guys round my way (Shropshire/north Wales) that have these tickets and are able to get a good bit of work. Only one I would consider adding to that at this stage would be your wood chipper ticket-easy 1 day course and it means a potential employer would be able to have you working “legally” on the ground snedding, chipping etc. It would be worth approaching some local firms and asking if they are looking for staff-even if they’re not, they might be able to give you an idea of what they specifically would look for in terms of qualifications. As said above, if tree work is something you’d like to specialise in, your cs38 (aerial rescue) would be worth doing, but it’s a more expensive course and if you don’t want to solely do arb work it may be a waste of money? 

[scbk]

If you've got the knowledge of pruning fruit trees from a commercial orchard I would think that would be a skill that could earn some money 

[KBS2021]

Thanks for the help guys.

 

I'm not sure about the aerial work, I wouldn't mind having a go at the climbling to see if I could do it, but the course is quite a lot for something that might not be useful to me. The CS31/31 cost upward of a grand, which is expensive, but very useful to me and has already paid for itself. My employer might put me through the chipper ticket. 

 

RE pruning: yeah, that's why I'd like to get into doing some gardening work as I've looked after 700 apple trees for the last 3 years. I would like to add a few more tickets to my name to get a bit more varied work, I've got a lot of experience with tractors and machinary, but love the saw work. I'll look into medium felling and wind blown as my next move.

 

Thanks again for the help