minimum wage

[Steve Bullman]

As a sweeping statement thats not entirely the case.

 

I know many, many tree surgeons who have gone and done a "quick course" to appease the insurers. These guys however are the types who could teach the lecturers a thing or two due to their massive experience.

 

The lesson here is, dont go assuming those doing crash courses all know nothing. In fact it can actually be the opposite, in that the youngsters who spent "x" years in college leave with a stack of tickets, yet still know nothing of the real side of the job.

 

I agree. I'd like to see the stats, but I suspect a greater percentage of the people taking the fast track courses are experienced users who just need their tickets in a hurry.

[eggsarascal]

As a sweeping statement thats not entirely the case.

 

I know many, many tree surgeons who have gone and done a "quick course" to appease the insurers. These guys however are the types who could teach the lecturers a thing or two due to their massive experience.

 

The lesson here is, dont go assuming those doing crash courses all know nothing. In fact it can actually be the opposite, in that the youngsters who spent "x" years in college leave with a stack of tickets, yet still know nothing of the real side of the job.

 

This is the same in most industries. I was trained and refreshed beyond believe when I worked for the local water company. Even though I had many years in the job.

 

Yet i could get a new starter that was sent off for training and come back a few weeks later to be my "Top Man". Which is the bloke who gets me out of the hole if it goes pair shaped, similar to you lads getting out of the tree if it goes wrong.

 

Nowt beats experience in my eyes.....but I would not like to explain that to the courts if something went wrong.i

[10 Bears]

As a sweeping statement thats not entirely the case....

....in that the youngsters who spent "x" years in college leave with a stack of tickets, yet still know nothing of the real side of the job.

 

I agree with you, but you are missing my point.

 

I wasn't suggesting that the industry only needs shiny fresh faced kids with a stack of tickets and nothing else. The useful trained students are not necessarily the ones with the stack of tickets. The useful ones may actually be able to ID a tree, or write a report if needed, perhaps understand the difference between soft and simultaneous rots and know the significance of them, understand the implications of a tree being TPO'ed etc. which is all valuable information that they get from college (and on the job of course). Further experience and using their recently acquired tickets can come with the passage of time.

 

What I am opposed to are the type of blokes who decide one day in the pub that they will get a felling ticket and have no idea about anything else ie Tree, yes its got green leaves on the top, Species? - yep, Its a tree definitely, they attend 5 days of training on how to operate a saw on the ground, and the following week they are a 'Tree Surgeon'. Yes this is an oversimplification, but this is a forum and Im not trying to write an essay about this myself.

 

I'm near a well known college that does a lot of trade with short courses and I have seen this very thing happen, so I know what I'm talking about. You may have a different experience than this, but my opinion will not change.

 

A stack of short courses and no other training is not the way to encourage a professional industry with high standards.