Example Section From New Course (Winches)

Now that we have this new Level 2 Certificate course, due to come online in the new year, I thought you might like to have a sneaky preview. The course consists of lots of practical sessions, but also some theory and portfolio building to show as evidence to the examiner; one of the areas that we will be looking at is maintenance of hand tools, and in this section we take a look at maintaining winches. Find out your link to it after the jump...

Although you won't be able to see the entire course, this is one section from it that shows the sort of thing that you might be doing - as well as the practical element to maintaining the winches, you'll have to build up your own resource around winches based on the 'Building Your Portfolio' tasks.

You can find the link HERE.

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

Back from holiday!

Well it's back to work after a couple of weeks holiday, and straight back in to running a couple of chainsaw maintenance (CS30) courses. It's always great to meet new faces on these courses and watch beginners tackle chainsaw sharpening, or listen to the more experienced users views on how they have carried out certain tasks. This got me thinking if there was a way to bring the questions, answers and information to a wider audience. There is, it's obvious and you can find out more after the jump...

Naturally, I get asked many of the same questions on the various courses and quite often also get those 'off-the-wall' questions, that often start with "This may sound stupid, but...". Well as we all know, there's [generally] no such thing as a stupid question - if you need an answer then you've got to ask the question!

So, I thought that as I'm about to start another year of chainsaw maintenance, felling and climbing courses that I would put some of these questions up here - along with answers, or put the question out to you lot to answer. This way, if you've got a 'stupid question' you won't have to ask it as someone else will have hopefully asked it already!

So, when it comes to questions about chainsaws, just remember not to hold the pointy end.