Qualifications

Qualifications in forestry and woodland management can be:

  • Academic – studied part or full-time through a college or university
  • Vocational – often focus on hands-on practical skills to do a specific craft or job
  • Professional – run by industry bodies and studied flexibly

Academic

There is a wide variety of forestry and arboricultural courses offered by universities and colleges across the UK. Many include elements of environmental management, conservation or woodland management. Universities and colleges increasingly offer flexible ways to study including part time, day release and distance learning. You can search for courses online at www.ucas.ac.uk

There are also over 40 land-based and agricultural colleges offering courses on trees and some of the larger colleges offer graduate and post-graduate level courses. Check your nearest college for details.

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Vocational

Vocational courses aim to train students for a specific job. Many land-based or agricultural colleges teach courses in forestry or arboriculture at NVQ or HNC level studied over one or two years often attended on day release. Check your nearest college for details.

Land-based colleges also provide numerous short competence-based courses in practical skills such as chainsaw maintenance, rope and harness, pruning and felling. These courses are regulated by the National Proficiency Test Council.

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Professional

Professional organisations such as the Institute of Chartered Foresters (ICF), Arboricultural Association (AA), the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM) have membership structures linked to qualifications and industry experience. These organisations may list training courses which are accredited by them on their websites and provide details of the training required to enter each level of membership. They may run their own qualifying courses or examinations and often provide continued professional development (CPD) short courses on a wide range of topics.

The Royal Forestry Society offers two professional qualifications awarded through the Awarding Bodies Consortium (ABC):

  • The Certificate in Arboriculture (Craftsman Level 2): Theory is studied part-time on a day release for 12 months and examined through ABC. To gain the full RFS qualification a number of short competence based NPTC courses in tree skills are completed.
  • The Professional Diploma in Arboriculture (Level 6): Theory is studied part time on day release for 24 months and examined through ABC. A one-day management exercise day is also undertaken and assessed.

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