City & Guilds chainsaw qualification

[Slimwich]

So I have the City and guilds qualification for chainsaw maintenance , crosscutting and felling up to 380mm and I am just wondering if they technically expire or if its one of them where after doing it you have it.
Or is it similar to the first aid course where you need to do a refresher every few years to keep it up to date?

Cheers

 

[SimpleSimon]

My understanding is that C&G qualifications don't expire. But. If you're an employee or contractor it's very likely you'll be expected to do a refresher every 5 years anyway for CPD and update best practice, etc.

 

[Terrydeer]

Generally it would be expected that a professional user would be required to undertake a refresher every 5 years and an infrequent/occasional user every 3 years.

 

[Greenmist]

Depends on your employer/insurer, as the above posters suggest, most organisations will send employees on regular refreshers to ensure insurance remains valid , note that its a refresher, so doesn't have to be the full C&G/NPTC, a LANTRA course should suffice. If something did go wrong the first question an insurer will ask is, are you trained, the second will be when you last attended training. If you're only using it for personal use and not charging you probably don't need an update, unless you drop a tree on a house in which case, you're back to insurers asking questions

 

[Jon P]

So I have the City and guilds qualification for chainsaw maintenance , crosscutting and felling up to 380mm and I am just wondering if they technically expire or if its one of them where after doing it you have it.
Or is it similar to the first aid course where you need to do a refresher every few years to keep it up to date?

Cheers

A long time ago I did a C&G Betec forestry course in the local agricultural college, this included my chain saw certificate. I had a little blue book showing what I had passed for the chainsaw qualification, I can remember it was time stamped for how long it was valid for. It was only valid for a few year.

 

[Skogsmannen]

Instead of a refresher, and unless it has changed recently, you were able to do a further full course instead, such as felling over 380mm, winch assisted fell etc.

 

[Greenmist]

Instead of a refresher, and unless it has changed recently, you were able to do a further full course instead, such as felling over 380mm, winch assisted fell etc.

Still the same, although once you've done them, you still need to remain current with refreshers if required

 

[countrryboy]

A long time ago I did a C&G Betec forestry course in the local agricultural college, this included my chain saw certificate. I had a little blue book showing what I had passed for the chainsaw qualification, I can remember it was time stamped for how long it was valid for. It was only valid for a few year.

The blue book wasn't yesterday.
That's a long time ago.

For the OP
NPTC don't have an expiry as has been said.

But it will depend wot ur using it for.

Commercial forestry need to have done a ticket in last 5 yrs for a saw ( but not a machine?)

Bizarrely I don't think the Arb industry has mandatory retraining like for forestry.
Althou I'm out of the arb game now.

 

[Slimwich]

Depends on your employer/insurer, as the above posters suggest, most organisations will send employees on regular refreshers to ensure insurance remains valid , note that its a refresher, so doesn't have to be the full C&G/NPTC, a LANTRA course should suffice. If something did go wrong the first question an insurer will ask is, are you trained, the second will be when you last attended training. If you're only using it for personal use and not charging you probably don't need an update, unless you drop a tree on a house in which case, you're back to insurers asking questions

Pretty much I got it through work, but we didn't use it enough to justify the refresher course. So I can't don't use it for work anymore but was just curious about if I wanted it personally if I would need to do the whole course again or just do a shorter version of it

 

[Skogsmannen]

Still the same, although once you've done them, you still need to remain current with refreshers if required

I was meaning more that the additional course was acting as the refresher for the ones that came before it, so rather than doing a refresher of say the basic CS30/31, you'd go do something like cS32 instead and it negated the need for a refresher until next time. I think they used to refer to it as upskilling.

The blue book wasn't yesterday.
That's a long time ago.

For the OP
NPTC don't have an expiry as has been said.

But it will depend wot ur using it for.

Commercial forestry need to have done a ticket in last 5 yrs for a saw ( but not a machine?)

Bizarrely I don't think the Arb industry has mandatory retraining like for forestry.
Althou I'm out of the arb game now.

Arb's no better regarding refreshers, and they keep making more and more arb courses too.

I really think that they should bring something in that anyone who wants to learn to climb with a chainsaw needs to have spent a pre-determined amount of time working on the ground first as there's so many new climbers who can climb but are truly terrifying to watch using a saw.

Similarly for progressing from 30/31 to pretty much anything else.

I was quite fortunate when I started out (not quite blue book but soon after it finished) as CS30/31 was all pretty much anyone had or needed in forestry and we all just cracked on. FC were the first ones to insist on refreshers and then Euroforest, tihlhill etc and now it's across the board.

 

[Greenmist]

Pretty much I got it through work, but we didn't use it enough to justify the refresher course. So I can't don't use it for work anymore but was just curious about if I wanted it personally if I would need to do the whole course again or just do a shorter version of it

For personal use you don't need any training, you can go into B&Q buy a cheap chinese chainsaw and cut wood (or your leg), my personal view, if you have training and you're competent and use PPE and its just for occasional use, you don't need anymore, however certain thing do change, usually inline with advances is saws and safety, not necessarily technique. You have the good qualification already, perhaps top it up with a cheap lantra or rural skills course, which will refresh the basics and point out any bad habits you may have picked up

 

[Stevie_87]

Once you have your C&G. You have it for good I’m sure it’s 31,32 and 39 for the felling cross cutting and maintenance