DriveLink

Unfortunately, I can't help you with PPE & equipment, but I can help you with learning this stuff! Take a look at Drive Link for CS30 (chainsaw maintenance) information and contact me through PM if you have any difficulties getting to grips with this new world you're entering Of course, you could always ask here on ArbTalk - as you're finding out, everyone here is really friendly and wants to help out as much as they can. Cheers, David.

Which is odd, as the registration fee for the CS30 is more than the CS31... I wonder if it's different up there?

Having just recently finished my Cert Ed (and now doing my BA), I too am working my way through the QTLS professional formation. I'm wondering how you are getting on with it? PM me, or email me at [email protected] if you want to compare notes!

You didn't put Sparsholt on the list!

For CS30, check out my chainsaw maintenance & crosscutting website at Drive Link - I'm currently doing a series covering some of the basic mistakes that learners make. I have to say that we don't just copy the LANTRA handbook - I wrote the CS30 & CS31 (and CS38, MEWP and Chippers) course notes for our students! Best wishes, David.

I know this doesn't help you at the moment, but I would be interested to know how many people who be interested in doing the ABC Arb theory via distance learning (specifically being delivered over the Internet)? I've just started to create a distance learning package covering all the theory elements through the use of text, pictures, videos and audio programs. My boss is a little bit sceptical about doing this, but I'm keen to get it going and think that there is a demand for this? What do you people think? Am I right, or is my boss right to be sceptical about it? If it happens (and I hope it does as I've already started doing it!), then it would be available from September 2011 through Sparsholt College. Please let me know either on here, or PM me. Thanks. Dave.

I've just posted a short (under 5 minutes) podcast to try and help people with the risk assessment element of the 'new' CS30 assessment. You'll find it over at... Drive Link: CS30 Risk Assessment Cheers, David.

Hi, I've just produced another DriveLink video; this five minute video looks at the split level cut, but I wanted to show more than that. If you're taking your NPTC felling assessment, then you know that you have to get a tree hung-up, and then deal with it. I thought that one of the worst things that could happen is to complete a split level cut... then get it really hung-up. This is perhaps more important now that the new assessment schedules are up and running, you'll be expected to use a winch if you need to. Anyway, you can find it at http://drivelink.blogspot.com. Thanks, David.

I run lots of short courses and I'm proud of the fact that I use, and prefer to use, external assessors to assess my learners. There are times when, due to unforeseen circumstances, I'll ask an 'internal' assessor to assess, but 99% of the time, it's a truly independent assessor that has no ties with the College. Even the 'internal' assessors have NO dealings with my students as my courses are run totally separate to the full-time courses. One of the benefits of using external assessors, is that it gives me feedback from many assessors on the quality of training provided, and that's a good thing. DriveLink.

LANTRA and NPTC are essentially completely different organisations. LANTRA has a dual role: it is the Sector Skills Council for land-based industries. That means that it is responsible for ensuring that employers get the training that the industry requires; it defines an over-arching document that lets training providers know what needs to be covered (it's called the National Occupational Standards). LANTRA is also a training body, and accredited LANTRA trainers ONLY can provide their courses. NPTC is part of City & Guilds, and is, in effect, the industry assessor. It provides the assessment schedules, assessors and verifiers needed to ensure a consistent quality to the assessment. That's the idea anyway. You do not need to take training to undertake an NPTC assessment, however training will help you to know what is expected of you for the assessment and many trainers will try their absolute best to help everyone reach the required standard. So, NPTC training is now more than a shorthand way of talking about the training that you complete in order to take the NPTC assessment. Cheers, DriveLink.

Oh, OK. John & Jo have been running their own business - ArborVenture for some time now. --------------------------------------- Anyway, on a completely different note, I've been working on a felling video (split level cut / hung-up tree). The video is completed, the editing is done, now it just needs the audio recorded and overlaid... then it's ready: the latest DriveLink video

No, neither John or Jo do any work up here now - haven't done for a little while.

Certainly the CS31 crossword is in the pipeline - unless you want to beat me to it I'll be posting the CS30 crossword answer sheet in a few days time too; and I'd be pleased for anyone to use it as necessary.

The DriveLink is now also on Facebook, David Vickers | Facebook, with easy access to the chainsaw videos (and a MEWP one) via the Links element on the left-hand side.

You should have a reasonable list of hazards listed - look for hazards that relate to the equipment that you use, inexperienced operators of that equipment, the site you're working on and the job that you're doing. No need to go into huge depth, but consider hazards such as: kickback / fuel & oil spillage / weather / trip hazards / general public / animals (domestic & livestock) / falling branches (or equipment) / moving timber (safe lifting & handling) / cutting potentially unstable timber / noise / vibration and so on... For each one consider the severity (1 for minor injury, 3 for serious / fatal). Then consider how likely it is to happen (1 for unlikely, 3 for often / always). Multiply them together and you get the risk rating. Whilst that sounds like a huge amount of work - you don't need to create a brand-new risk assessment every time you go out. Make your generic one and copy it - but, and this is quite important, review it and amend if necessary every time you go out. Risk assessments should take a matter of minutes, not be a labourious task lasting hours! Also consider your emergency planning too... Cheers, David.

I've found this to be one of those 'grey-areas' in the past, however... the CS47 only requires pre-requisites of CS30 and 31; you must also have the relevant MEWP Operators ticket for the type of MEWP you intend to work from. If you intend to use a top handled saw when taking your CS47 ticket, then you must additionally have CS38/CS39 too. So, having CS39 and a MEWP Operators ticket does not imply that you have the equivalent of CS47. For further information, check out the NPTC website - look under assessment schedules and scroll down to the chainsaw (QCF) section. The link is here. Hope it helps, David.

There's another thread about refresher training too! I can deliver refresher training for 30, 31, 32, 38 and 39 if the numbers make it viable. PM me if you need some more information. Cheers, David.

I deliver NPTC MEWP Operator training & assessment up at Sparsholt - but that's probably a bit far? Anyway, if it's of any interest, PM me. Cheers, David.

I can do refresher training... but the posters above are about right. NPTC do not have a requirement for you to re-take an assessment, but the demand comes from HSE rather than NPTC. HSE recommend that for professional users, refreshers should be undertaken every 5 years. For occasional / non-professional users, the refresher time period comes down to 3 years. PM me if you need any more information. Cheers, David.

Hi there, I will be putting up a competition to win an Oregon Timber Vice on the DriveLink website this weekend. The competition is based on a crossword that relates to the NPTC CS30 assessment schedule, and so if you are a trainer and would like to use it, then please feel free to download and copy it as you see fit. If you're a student you might like to try it out to test your own knowledge? More details on the DriveLink website this weekend. Thanks, David.

NOTE: This post is not intended to start any 'flaming' against the current system of assessments, awarding bodies or any existing curriculum! OK, here goes... I have to write a paper as part of my Certificate in Education on either evaluating an existing curriculum, or inventing a new one. I'd like to invent a new one for tree work. I'd also like to hear about your ideas on what form this new curriculum would take. If you are interested please read on... I'd like to put together a curriculum that would enable a business to take someone on board and know that the training and education they have received will be of real-world use. That's not just skills, but background knowledge too. Would it be a full-time course? Part-time course(s)? Or perhaps some form on formalised on-job-training? So how would you set about taking someone with little or knowledge of arboriculture, and bring them up to a standard where you trust their level of workmanship, safety and customer service? What sort of things should be covered? How would they be assessed - continuously, or 'on the day'? The great thing about this is, for the sake of this paper, there is no LANTRA, C&G, NPTC or anything - just a clean slate waiting to be filled. I realise that this is a big ask - and I'm not necessarily looking for hugely in-depth answers - I'm trying to get a feel for a consensus about what this new beast would look like. Feel free to reply here, PM me or email me at [email protected] Thank you, David.

If I remember correctly, when I looked at the new proposed structure back around Jan / Feb, the idea is that the 'safety' questions (risk assessments, etc.) would be taken out and put in a new unit. CS31 would now include winching. CS32 would include weighted trees and large fell techniques. CS33 would disappear as it would be subsumed into CS32. Anyway, that was then (at the time it was during the consultation process, and so may have changed / be changed). Anybody any updates on the latest thinking..?

And that's so long as LANTRA get the new National Occupational Standards agreed and signed off..?

Of course, as and when and if they get the new system in place, the NPTC CS33 will become part of the CS32 anyway...