RFS Arb course, online.

[APC]

Think I'm gonna bite the bullet and get stuck in before the wife starts dropping out babies left right and centre. I'm a countryside ranger and am looking to specialise in trees and woodland management.

 

You guys seem to rate the course. Hopefully it won't be too financially crippling as I have a lot of the practical units covered already (CS30,31, chippers, tractors/loaders, knapsacks) It doesn't appear that CS32 is in there though (which I don't have yet), so I'm assuming that I have to take that prior to doing windblown, with no credit for CS32 on this course.

 

Does this online course through hccollege.co.uk start whenever you want it to or do you have to start at a set time, like September or somat? I can't see details of this on their website.

 

Also, the tree planting one, AO1, what sort of costs are involved in this? I can barely find anywhere that offers it, let alone shows the price for it.

 

I would like to do more of the optionals but costs will definitely prevent this unless my employer, a LA, can conjure up some gold tokens from the magic beans that they seem to have invested in. I might get one or two of the practicals covered by work but not really certain on that....

 

...which brings me onto my last question, I reckons that I can get the theory all covered in the 18month time limit, but I'm worried in case I'm lacking one practical unit. Does that mean I have to start again from scratch? Can they hold back the qualification until I've sorted it?

 

Thanks!

 

Adam

[carlos]

hi adam

i presume you are talking about the distance learning course from the hcc collage, seems to be a good course i have just passed it although i had to resit one of the therory modules (there are three) the exams are evry 6 mnths. i think the theory is kind of seperate from the practicle in so far as you get a cert in the thorey, without doing the practicles this is not the full rfs tho, i must admit it havent really looked into the rest of the practicles should do really. hope this helps a bit

chees carl

[Jack Gooding]

The syllabus has recently changed and is now accredited from 01/09/10, but having just contacted ABC Awards (who assess the RFS L2 cert in arb), they say the distance learning option for this course is/has been completely removed! The lady I spoke to insisted that HCC and Myerscough wouldn't be able to run the course online/via post as it all has to be assessed at a college.

 

Now, I get that you need to go to a college to take the exams, but I though you could just pay to sit these and have someone from the college invigilate you, say at Easton College.

 

HCC themselves say they'll be revising their lesson plans in a couple of months after they've finished doing some others, so it seems they think they can keep doing distance learning.

 

What a bloomin' headache!

[APC]

The syllabus has recently changed and is now accredited from 01/09/10, but having just contacted ABC Awards (who assess the RFS L2 cert in arb), they say the distance learning option for this course is/has been completely removed! The lady I spoke to insisted that HCC and Myerscough wouldn't be able to run the course online/via post as it all has to be assessed at a college.

 

Now, I get that you need to go to a college to take the exams, but I though you could just pay to sit these and have someone from the college invigilate you, say at Easton College.

 

HCC themselves say they'll be revising their lesson plans in a couple of months after they've finished doing some others, so it seems they think they can keep doing distance learning.

 

What a bloomin' headache!

 

 

Bugger. There's not a hope in hell of me being able to get the time to go back to college. Poo.

[Jack Gooding]

I'd give ABC a call, see if you can make more sense out of what the woman was saying than I did!

 

The other thing I found out from calling different colleges was that most of them only let you start the course each academic year, not like HCC, who let you start whenever.

[tractorboy1]

I'd give ABC a call, see if you can make more sense out of what the woman was saying than I did!

 

ABC make sense that will be the day good course thou.

[APC]

Righto,

 

Just called HCC and ABC.

 

Think I understand what's going on now.

 

This course, as it is right now, can be enrolled on up until end of December this year. The candidate must be registered at an ABC approved centre, before end of December, so that they can take the exams within 2 years of starting the course.

 

After this date, the course will cease to exist in it's present form. It will change to test students face to face, and so you will need to enroll at a college and turn up for lessons and stuff. This will cost far more than the HCC distance learning method. HCC are NOT approved by ABC to test candidates, merely send out the course materials.

 

Waiting to do the course at a college is not an option for me. Part of the appeal of the original course was that I could do it via distance learning. My days at work are all over the place. I could be doing 7 days a week through much of the summer, so can't commit to set days. Also, the wife wants me to impregnate her somehow, within the near future. That would throw a baby-shaped spanner in the works. So yeah. Best enrol now innit.

[APC]

Got my first load of lesson delivered. It's quite in depth for a level 2 course, in a good way. Seems all good, just gotta get back into the habit of homework!

[Brushcutter]

I did it a few years ago. Again i was suprised in how indepth some of it was.

[Treegeek]

Good tip off i have been considering going this course for a while so will be signing up for this asap