Old Blue Book

[rovers90]

An aquaintance did all his chainsaw training many years ago and qualified under the old blue book scheme. He has not worked int he industry for some time and his present employer wishes him to do some chainsaw work around the property but only if he is still qualified.

 

They cannot see an expiry on the blue book and were wondering if it was still valid for him to use a chainsaw and if he had an accident.

 

Any ideas?

[slack ma girdle]

I think it is time he did a refresher course. If i was employing him i would want a refresher as minimum, depending on level of competance and experience.

[rovers90]

I think it is time he did a refresher course. If i was employing him i would want a refresher as minimum, depending on level of competance and experience.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I understand he should do a refresher but is the old blue book still valid???

[corylus]

As far as I'm aware, once you have yr tickets, you are qualified. If you haven't played for a length of time a refresher is a v good idea. However a friend HAS to do a refresher every 2 or 5 years ( can't remember) as he works for National Trust, and I presume their insurers demand such.

[Gareth Dalzell]

Up until a few years ago nptc would still take the old blue books and re- issue with the new CS equivalent. They stopped this now as far as I know.

[kev7937]

They won't issue the new units to replace the old without a retest but the original quals are valid for life, mine are still 19,20 and 21 I think.

 

Refresher courses are only a recommendation but think I'd want someone to do one if they'd been off the tools for a while

[rovers90]

Thank you for the comments men. I now understand whilst they are valid for life, any employer should see it as prudent to encourage the holder to undertake refresher training.

[Arbocop]

Thank you for the comments men. I now understand whilst they are valid for life, any employer should see it as prudent to encourage the holder to undertake refresher training.

 

Err may be not.... if he has got the blue book only, and did not send it in to claim his qualification the nptc stance would now be he does not hold the qualification, even though he took the test he never claimed it.....

 

Now it would be a hard Judge if it got questioned to throw that at him but one could argy he is not actually qualified as the book was mealy a means of claiming the qualification.

 

NPTC stopped hounoring the old blue book quals just over 4 years ago as it was over 10 years since tey had stopped, so even if he had done the quals, and claimed the certs there are certain quals he could not move on to eg cs32.

 

As for why update training is required, it is a Recommendation of the hse to revise every 3-5 years, the value of this depends heavily on your instructor and the breifing you give them prior to the training. of course in stead of going over the same stuff up skilling is also refresher eg going from small to med trees, or adding pruning to your arial quals.

 

So the long and short of your mate is if he has not used a saw for years I would suggest he did some update training to get back in the saddle, he may also fuind technically he is not actually qualified at all.

 

From the employers point of view if they are happy they may let him proceed but if seriousness incident occurred serious questions may be asked

 

kev

[bob]

This will go round and round

There is no expiry but current guidelines say refresher training to stay current with best practice.

I would doubt any reputable company would see that someone who had been out of the industry and got a qual 20 odd yrs ago was currently qualified.

Certainly if someone came to work for me and had got a driving license and had not done any driving for 20 yrs I don't think I would want them driving my car

Blue book was more a cert of attendance than what we are now expected and is a independent assessment for competence.

Personally I would recommend refresher training or even re doing the certs or at least work with another tree bod to keep an eye on him.

HSE state upto 5 yrs and we should do refresher

[Yorkshireman]

get a refresher booked,