Investing in the future...

As an independent, freelance trainer I'm looking for ways to invest in the future and make the most of new technology. Now, I'm not one for technology for technology's sake (my climbing system is all rope - there's no spiderjack, ascenders and what-not to clutter and confuse; although I will admit to a couple of micro-pulleys!).

Anyway, back to the point at hand... I've been intrigued by the battery powered chainsaws for quite a while, and I was demonstrating at the Bath & West Show a number of years back when I came across a guy using a small Makita battery saw. We had a chat and I watched him using it, but what struck me most was how slow the chain ran. Fast forward several years and battery technology has moved on leaps and bounds and battery saws may well be the future - they're not there yet for full-on, everyday forestry contractor use, but for many applications they are perfect.

So, why did I invest in this Husqvarna 536Li ground saw? How do I envisage using it?

Let's state the obvious, using a battery to power the saw means no petrol, no 2-stroke oil, no more mixing it up, no more smell of petrol, no more fumes. Charging the battery costs a matter of pence each time, and one battery is fully charged in 35 minutes.

That's all well and good, but the decision was not that easy from a training point of view; with no petrol engine to worry about, there's no air filter maintenance, no recoil starter to tension, no spark plug gap to check, no woodchip to clear out from the exhaust - all great things but the NPTC assessment still requires the learner / candidate to demonstrate maintenance of all these things.

From a training point of view, it's not a clear cut decision, however there are many advantages:

• the chain stops instantly (there's no 'run-down' period as there is on a petrol chainsaw);
• I don't use the saw continuously, as I generally use it for demonstrating cuts, and so a couple of batteries will get me through a day of training;
• when a cut is finished and you release the throttle, the saw stops... it's completely silent and that means I can explain relevant points to learners without having to shout over the noise of a chainsaw on tick-over.
• there's no risk of fuel spillage, which is great for 'eco-sites'.

I'll let you know how I get on with it in the fullness of time...

The All New Chipper Course... Has it gone legislation mad?

Running through the new Level 2 Award in Safe Use of Manually Fed Woodchippers course today (why do all the new qualifications have to have such long titles?), it struck just how much has changed from the 'old' chippers certificate. The new one is much better written, more logical and covers all the salient points - but legislation... getting the candidate to remember information on five different regulations on a one day short course is a bit much!

Or is it? We all know it's important to maintain health and safety standards - we work in a dangerous industry after all, and stupid 'mistakes' are still being made such as this example where a worker lost an arm in a chipper, and this example of an unsupervised and untrained teenager operating a chipper who lost his toes after pushing the brash into it. These aren't accidents from decades ago either... how is it there is still such ignorance about the law surrounding this equipment?

All of the new Level 2 Awards have a common thread through them - risk assessment, emergency planning, and legislation - and I think that's a good thing, but why does the Level 2 Woodchippers talk about the following NINE regulations...

• Management of Health & Safety At Work Act '99
• Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations '98
• Control of Vibration at Work Regulations '05
• Personal Protective Equipment Regulations '92
• Manual Handling Operations Regulations '92
• Noise at Work Regulations '89
• COSHH
• "Countryside and Wildlife Act '81" (shouldn't that be the Wildlife and Countryside Act anyway?
• RIDDOR

...when the Level 2 chainsaw maintenance and crosscutting only has:

• Health & Safety at Work Act
• PUWER
• AFAG guides (no mention of INDG317: Chainsaws At Work or the FISA guides which have taken over from some of the formally relevant AFAG guides)

No mention of RIDDOR there... and no mention of the PPE regulations either... or the manual handling regs, control of vibration, noise at work, or COSHH for that matter! All of which apply equally to using chainsaws as much as using the chipper.

Perhaps City & Guilds NPTC should consider separating out the legislative stuff and running it as a distinct assessment? Then enforcing refresher training on this.

What do you think?

Medium / Large Fell: space available.

There is a space available on the medium / large fell course at Sparsholt College.

The course, which runs in January from the 27th-31st used to be the old CS32, but is now the Level 3 Award in Felling and Processing Trees Over 380mm.

In this course, you'll learn a variety of different cuts and deal with winching operations, as well as legal and environmental considerations and health & safety issues.

To find out more, you can visit the NPTC website where you  can find details of the assessment requirements at http://www.nptc.org.uk/qualificationschemedetail.aspx?id=352 or contact Sparsholt College at 01962 797213 (Gill Yeeles).

Need a chainsaw trainer?

Apologies again for not putting up more posts - especially as we now have the new NPTC units to deliver. With the ending of the old CSnn units, and the creation of the new Level 2 and Level 3 Awards which came into force back in June, there have been some changes to the training. So, here on DriveLink we'll be taking a look at some of those changes, and also a 'new' felling cut that has appeared in the L2 Award in Felling and Processing Small Trees (was CS31).

But first, one of the reasons why I've not been posting on here is that I left my job as Forestry & Arboriculture Short Course Manager at Sparsholt College to go out on my own. At the time, I was busy with woodfuel and the wood heat industry, as well as continuing to deliver some training at Sparsholt.

This post then, is just to let you know that if you require a contract chainsaw trainer, please do get in touch with me directly on 0790 067 7715 or via the contact form to the right.

My experience:

I spent 8 years managing and delivering forestry and arboriculture short courses at Sparsholt College:

• CS30 / L2 Award in Chainsaw Maintenance & Cross-Cutting
• CS31 / L2 Award in Felling and Processing of Trees up to 380mm.
• CS32 / L3 Award in Felling and Processing of Trees over 380mm
• CS38 / L2 Award in Tree Climbing & Aerial Rescue
• CS39 / L3 Award in Aerial Cutting of Tress
• as well as stump grinding, woodchipper operations and MEWP operations.

I'm also a qualified teacher and mentor, holding QTLS, Cert. Ed. Certificated Mentor, BA(Hons) in Post Compulsory Education & Training, an NVQ assessor (A1), and a member of the Institute for Learning (M.IfL) and Associate Member of the Institute of Equality and Diversity Practitioners.

I have an excellent reputation for training, and believe in providing inclusive training to help everyone achieve their goals.

Contact me via the form on the right, or call me on 0790 067 7715 to discuss your training requirements.

New QCF Level 2 Certificate in Arb/Forestry

Some really exciting news... I've been working on building a series of new courses designed for those who want to enter the arboriculture or forestry industries. The first of these courses, the QCF Level 2 Certificate in Forestry and Arboriculture is just about ready to roll. Each of these courses covers a series of NPTC certificate of competencies, as well as underpinning knowledge that will allow you to submit your work to gain a Level 2 qualification. Not only that, but it's cheaper than taking the individual NPTC courses! For more information, find out after the jump...

The course is designed to take you from complete novice, to a competent chainsaw operator capable of carrying out typical ground-based arboricultural operations, in just three weeks. The course covers the following NPTC certificates:

• CS30: chainsaw maintenance and crosscutting


• CS31: felling and processing small trees


• Manually operated wood chippers


• Stump grinder operations

The information and practical experience gained by completing the NPTC elements will provide around 90% of what is required for the QCF Level 2 qualification; additional material supplied both online and through various workshop and site activities completes the remainder.

You'll be carrying out chainsaw maintenance on at least two different makes / models of saw (and probably more), felling small trees and looking at the different felling methods available for different situations, dealing with hung-up trees, delimbing or snedding (safe branch removal methods), maintaining and operating a chipper and stummp grinder, as well as maintenance of winches and other necessary equipment.

It's a great opportunity to learn the basic skills, earn a recognised qualification and take your NPTC assessments. The course starts on the 10th January 2011, and runs for 3 weeks (Mon-Fri) at Sparsholt College, Hampshire.

I'll be the tutor for this course and the cost of £1,457 includes the three weeks tuition, loan equipment and PPE, NPTC assessment fees, registration & handling fees, course notes, access to the online learning environment that's been specially built for this course and all transportation to and from any sites. All you need to do is turn up and bring some food/drink!

If you want any more information, contact me via the comments, or email me at david.vickers@sparsholt.ac.uk

Supporting Dyslexic Learners

This year I've been much more aware of many learners attending my courses who are dyslexic - whether they have mild 'symptoms' or serious dyslexia and find it extremely difficult to read at all. Whilst the NPTC assessments are practical based, with questions asked to test knowledge, the problem still remains for trainers to put across information in a manner suitable for everyone, irrespective of any learning difficulties.

This is an area that I'm just starting to learn about myself, and over the last 6-9 months I've been trying to help those that are dyslexic so that they can revise skills and knowledge learnt on a course. Find out more after the jump...

Here at Sparsholt College, at the start of the year I tweaked the application process so that I knew in advance if learners with learning difficulties, dyslexia and so on, were to attend a course. This sort of knowledge is important to a trainer so that we can make our lessons inclusive for everyone.

For starters, I rely heavily on imagery when I teach, although I can't get away entirely from text here and there; and of course the course notes that every student gets have large areas of text. From what I've learnt, the colour of the paper that the notes are written on can make a big impact, improving readability. I now make it a point to ask any students if they would prefer to have their notes printed on something other than standard white paper.

It's only a small thing, but the response from dyslexic students has been interesting - it really seems to make a difference. In fact, one student was really taken by the fact that I had asked and made a comment along the lines of "Thanks, yes I'd like it on pale yellow paper. I can't believe you care - where I was before just treated me as if I was stupid". That's no way to treat anyone and I;ve had other students who have benefited from this small change.

It's also why I have introduced some audio stuff here on DriveLink, as well as video. It's just another way of getting across the information, some will prefer to watch a video, others will hate it. That's fine - as long as they get the skills and knowledge they need to operate a chainsaw, fell a tree, or climb, safely.

The image at the top of the screen was actually destined to be a storyboard for another instructional video that I want to make (I've got so many ideas for videos!), but I also wondered of it was useful to others as a quick reference on how to sharpen a chain. Naturally, it's a bit light on actual information (that's what the video will be for), but as an aide-memoire or quick reference, if it's useful to someone then print it off. It's sized for A4 paper, so should just print out fine.

If you're reading this, and you've got staff, or you know someone that has learning difficulties of some sort, then make sure they get the training they deserve - improving the effectiveness of the training we deliver will help reduce accidents and increase knowledge across this industry.

- David -