Chris at eden

Here is another one of those indicators. TEP have just posted a job for a surveyor on Arbtalk. It states that applicants must have a level 3 qualification. This is just for surveying work, that is then passed onto consultants for evaluation and analysis. Goes to show what they think they can justify and defend if they need to.

You can also take up to 5 years to complete the L6. Two years is the minmum timeframe and as Andrew already said an extreme amount of work. That said it is acheivable if you get stuck in as both me and Andrew have shown along with an additional 10 tree life students. Not sure how many of those were on year 3 though. Be warned though, there is only about 30% of the students making it in 2 years and a lot drop out in the first few weeks when they realise what the work load is. I was repeatedly told by treelife not to under estimate the amount of work and i still did. Big time. The thing i liked about the L6 was the fact that you have to meet the assessment criteria (AC) at 100%. With exam based and as far as i know with all academic, you only have to hit 50%. This means that if you do a 5837 impact assessment for L6 and it only hits 60% of the AC, you get it back with a few comments and get told to improve it. That will keep happening until you get it spot on. You then get the opportunity to increase your learing to a higher level. This would ultimatly result in you writting a better report which is a benefit if you want to do consultancy. Any report you ever write has the potential to end up in court, do you really want to defend smething which is only 50% correct? I dont see how you would get that on the academic side and that was always my concern and reason for going L6. That is just my view though, BSc is also a good qualification from what i hear. I wouldn't worry too much about if its recognised abroad, that is the whole point of QCF. The are nationally and internationally recognised and people within the industry are well aware of what the dip arb is.

I was thinking of the westonbirt group mate. I didn't really fit in so joined syston. Your group had a better bacon butty shop also which was the real Clincher.

Yeah may be missing the point slightly so sorry if i wasn't clear. What i mean is the Dip Arb is specifically written with consultancy in mind. The BSc isn't, its academic, so reseach and teaching more so. Didn't really want to say that but AA techie just did on another post so obviously not just my opinion. Not saying that one is better than the other, they are the same level so clearly not, just depends what you want from it. Also, the RFS dip arb has gone through many changes in its history. The one that finished in 2013 is nowt like the old 1960's version. That one still had chainsaw ops in the syllabus. The new dip arb is just the latest evolution of the same thing to meet modern teaching stadards. i.e. formative instead of summative assessment.

I agree that L6 is higher but the AA will allow access to its reg consultancy scheme with a level 5 as long as you meet the other requirements. If you look at their current list most of them have RFS PD Arb which is the old version of the L6. Make of this what you will but i think this speaks volumes. I have just finished L6 with Treelife and can't recommend it highly enough. You can also do it as a correspondance course that they call tree mail. My advice though would be to try to make the sessions if you can. There are 25 over 2 years. They do Westonbirt, Syston, and Harlow. Part of the learning and confidence comes from working with other professionals at the sessions and exchanging ideas. Good luck!

I know, nightmare. I read the other day that they are going to scrap Latin names for all new plants, algae and fungi. Not relevant anymore apparently. The new international language is English so that is what they are going to use. I hope its a spoof to be fair, I like the fancy names.

Yeah it was me that told ya. I knew I shouldn't have been reading those comments out to the group cos I thought they were funny. To be fair though mate I think he was saying that the majority of L6 students did not know what pollard was.

I thought Taxales had been scrapped as an order with Yew now included in Pinales

In general - broadleaf.

Good call. Knew someone would catch me out when i said it.

Nice looking website, how do you rank on google? I just entered 'tree surgeons in wivelsfield' and you dont seem to be on the first 4 pages. My website is a bit naf looking and needs updating as i did it myself but its on page 1 of google in my area. I Get most of my work through that. Work on your SEO to boost ranking. Have you tried pay per click to expand your geographical area? You set your own budget so it doesn't need to be expensive and it can boost your ratings away from your physical location. You can switch it on and off when you dont need it as well. Cheers,

Just broadleaves or at least I can't think of a conifer that would. Many conifers dont regenerate from a stump (e.g. Pine) and the ones that do such as Thuja don't have the correct branch structure. i.e. they have a single straight stem.

I think that is a fancy way of saying topping. The French are really good at pollarding in my experience so would probably be a bit offended. I admit though, when i was working on the tools years ago i always said French pollard instead of topping.

Spot on.

p.s. Sorry about the typo's!!! These are a definite no no in written reports for the record.

It depends on who is inspecting the trees and why. NTSG identifies diferent levels of responsibillity and how to discharge the duty of care. For example it is fine for a private resident to monitor his own tree through informal observations. i.e. just keeping a general eye on tree condition while cutting the lawns and then calling in a professional when required. The same document discusses the responsibillity of a rural council in section 5. It states that highway trees are inspected proactively by highways officers in the first instance and any concerns are relayed to the tree officer who has a level 3 arb qualification for a detailed inspection. I see no reason why this cant be applied across the board. If a gardener inspects a tree and cannot decide what to do he should seek professional advice and in my view this means level 3. OK it doesn't specifically say this but its about what the courts consider to be reasonable if something goes wrong. There is also a bench mark qualification in Lantra PTI for professional tree inspection. This again would be reasonable in my view. The AA reg consultants list requires that you have level 5, the ICF is level 6 i think, and CAS is level 4. These are all relevant as you could use them to make your case to the judge if you wanted to discredit someone. If the prosecution were to say this chap has a level 2 qualification and presenting himself as a professional or expert, yet all these organisations say at least level 4 for professional membership, NTSG discusses L3, plus if you wish to gain the Lantra PTI the pre-requisite is L3 arb qualification!!! It would be very difficult to argue and put up a suitable defence. There is no legal requirement but there are plenty of indicators out there to say what you should have. As someone already stated 5837 and subs investigation are at a higher level and i dont think you would get the required skills at level 3. This is based on my own experience of going through L2, L3, L4, and L6 to see what is covered at the different levels. Some may have a different experience so thats just my view. Cheers,

Good points no doubt but i suspect the question is in relation to tpo exemption in which case only the minimum applies.

Not heard the 6m one before Bob but makes sense. Cheers

2.4 over the footway and 5.2 over the carriageway as far as I know. I believe it comes from the 1980 highways act.

Sorry mate, only looked quickly so I could answer your question. Didn't notice the forestry unit was an optional. Pity you don't get the choice, the special trees unit would be interesting. Make sure you ask them about moderation via ABC. Its important and it may be something they will help with. Cheers,

No probs and good luck.

One other thing. With L6 the course is delivered over two years but you have five years to submit all the work before they make you start again. I think they all work the same so some flexibility there.

Hi, yes it does matter but if you do the ABC version not the other one they do that is accredited. I would imagine you have to contact ABC to get it externally moderated to get the ABC qualification though. One thing to check, their course only appears to teach the mandatory units, you have to pick up another 3 credits from optional units to get the ABC certificate. Download the syllabus from the ABC website for more info. They call it 'the rules of combination, not a syllabus though. If you do a none accredited course it may not give you the progression opportunities you would get with accredited. For example to go on and do level 4 in the future. The ABC qualifications are really good, I have just finished level 6 and would recommend following up as you move through your career. I did my L2 qualifications back in the late 90's and had no intention of going higher but you never know so its good to have the choice. A none accredited qualification would not give you the same employment opportunities either if you want to get into surveying and consultancy later. Hope this helps,

I don't think their courses are accredited through QCF, check before you sign up.