John Hancock

We are now advertising for a Trainer / Assessor at Pershore College, Worcestershire. The position involves training apprenticeship students in a variety of skills, including: Chainsaw Maintenance & Cross-cutting, Tree Felling, Tree Climbing & Aerial Rescue & Use of Chainsaw in Tree Using Free-fall Techniques, ready for their NPTC assessments. The role will also involve traveling to the apprentices to undertake periodic reviews at their workplace. Applicants will be expected to have industry experience and hold the relevant NPTC qualifications for the units you'll be teaching and instructing in. I've fought long and hard to raise salaries in the Arboricultural teaching sector and I'm pleased to say the salary will be £30,275 per per annum Please click the following link for job description and on-line application - https://apps.warkscol.ac.uk/AccessSelect.rEcruit/Recruitment/VacancyDetails.aspx?VacNo=5477 If you'd like an informal chat, please feel free to give me a call on 07789 501336

Admittedly it wasn't today, and it's not a sunset but a sunrise, and I've been away for a while, excuses excuses...

Cheers Rich, All credit to Ben Andrews for being an excellent instructor, I just stuck the GoPro on his head, wired him up with the microphone and off he went....and a little editing of course ;-)

Hi Paul, Thanks for your feedback :-) C&G are due to update their assessors imminently (they may already have - it takes a while for information to filter through to the colleges). Once the update is received then modifications can be made. From a teaching / instructing point of view, it's no bad thing to have two attachment points in the tree while undertaking a changeover, particularly with new students. 'unquestionably reliable'.....bit of a mouthful isn't it!

Good morning, I realise the subject has been done to death and has been much debated in the past but this video has been sat in my Youtube account not going anywhere so I thought I'd share it. Access a Tree Using a Rope and Harness - Two Rope System - We decided to make a series of videos as a learning resource for our students (mainly the new ones), starting with the basics, preparing them for assessment. Interestingly, when teaching and instructing new students, they really don't have a problem with using the two-rope system, they feel more secure and it aids better positioning throughout the tree. The next video will be: Installing a cambium-saver from the ground and undergoing aerial rescue in an open-grown tree.

Hi Pete, In order to get good staff you need to draw from industry, in order to draw from industry, you need to be able to offer an equivalent (or very near) salary. Once you find good staff, you need to be able to retain them, we all know, on the whole, it's an enjoyable industry, it's all too easy for staff to leave and re-join.

Yes, 31k and above was the max, thanks for your input

Hello all! I’m carrying out a survey of typical salaries paid to UK Arborists at different levels (1 – 5). The survey is for a research paper I’m doing as part of a teaching qualification. As many of you know I hung up my chainsaw boot in favour of teaching would-be Arbs of the future. It’s becoming more evident that Colleges are struggling to recruit teaching and technical staff because the salaries have not kept up with industry, in short, I can earn more money feeding brash through a chipper than teaching students at levels 2, 3 and foundation degree. Could I ask business owners to complete the following survey and comment where prompted? Your help would be greatly appreciated! The survey can be found by clicking the following link - https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FQW9XQB

Sometimes I wonder what this Oak is screaming.....any suggestions?

Four fingered Ash, Bredon Hill, Worcestershire

Yep, sure is

Not one from today, or yesterday but thought it worthy of sharing....hope you all know the species ;-)

Update – After contacting Wychavon District Council it turns out that the house builders were Bovis, contacted Bovis who said the trees will be replaced in the autumn and will then be looked after by a ‘contractor’. Money well spent then!

On that budget I'd go for a Discovery TD5, great workhorse plus you can get a hell of a lot in the back if you fold the seats down for a trip to the tip!

I've just messaged the local authority, should have an answer by tomorrow...

There is clearly one for mowing the lawn - Priorities eh!?

This new housing development was built and completed recently opposite where I live and is a great example of the little to no aftercare given to newly planted trees. Why is no consideration given to watering and aftercare to these trees? Every house is now occupied and it’s obvious given the state of the trees that the residents don’t care. The landscape contractor has completed their contract, so they don’t care and it’s pretty obvious that the local authority doesn’t care either. Planning permission was applied for and given, as part of that permission ‘X’ number of trees would have been stipulated to be planted on the new development, surely the developer has an obligation to water and maintain these trees for at least two years? I wouldn’t say it breaks my heart but it does make me mad seeing this repeated time and time again all over the country, it seems as long as trees are just stuck in the ground and left to fend for themselves, everyone is happy!?

Apologies if this has been posted before, I think this raises so many questions….

Extremely likely!

I attended Dave’s funeral today, as you can imagine, it was a very emotional affair, many thanks to Paul Barton for keeping me company and putting up with my singing! Dave’s climbing helmet was placed on his coffin and Three Little Birds by Bob Marley was played as he entered Tewkesbury Abbey, which was full, not a spare seat in the house. Recessional was Let her go, by Passenger. Today was a gloriously hot day, the sun shone, so I cycled to the funeral in full cycling regalia, Dave was an avid cyclist so hopefully he wouldn’t have minded. The Wellingtonia located in the Abbey grounds (which Dave climbed many-a-time) looked splendid in the summer sunshine. A wonderful, emotional and fitting send-off, R.I.P David Shephard.

The original post has been taken down now *no surprises there! It does represent a monumental PR gaff though, Amey apologised, stating it was a ‘stock image’ and was not meant to be posted.

Busy day Saturday, we had an open day here at Pershore College, good to see so much interest from the youngsters!

Cheers Ian, that's very kinds, obviously my job has changed a little, different kind of pictures but will do my best!

An interesting response to my post to say the least, here’s a few more to give you a flavour of what we do -

I bought this Defender 4 years ago, it was advertised up in Scotland, one previous owner and 16k on the clock from new. I had 4 happy years motoring with it and proved very reliable. Sadly I’ve just sold it after an attempted theft, the one night I forgot to put the pedal-lock on some low-life smashed up the dashboard and buggered up the steering-lock and ignition barrel, loads have been pinched in Worcestershire and I couldn’t live with the anxiety of not knowing if it was going to be there in the morning! I sold it for exactly the same amount as I bought it, now running a Discovery TD5 again and put the remaining cash in the bank!