Daniel Carrocci. TREENET
Arboriculture- the care and management of trees- is an increasingly important industry in the urban environment yet the extent of education and training in this area is unclear. I have searched private registered training organisations in Australia for courses relating to arboriculture, mostly using the World Wide Web.
Arboriculture is not just about pruning trees, arborists work with trees in many different ways. The industry consists of different levels of work and for this reason there are different educational requirements needed by anyone wanting to work at any of these levels.
The following is a list of Arboriculture qualifications and an outline of the level of the industry they can lead to. (Information from the Rural Training Council Of Australia Inc.)
- Certificate I in Horticulture (Arboriculture).
Required by Ground Workers or Arboricultural Assistants who prepare the site, maintain ground safety, manage ropes and equipment, move branches etc. - Certificate II in Horticulture (Arboriculture).
Required by Climbers or Arboricultural Workers who work from within the tree and require the use of ropes and harnesses, elevated work platforms and chainsaws. - Certificate III in Horticulture (Arboriculture).
Required by Aboricultural Tradespersons who do the same sort of work as climbers but on larger trees sometimes using specialist machinery. - Certificate IV in Horticulture (Arboriculture).
Required by Arboricultural Supervisors who supervise and train staff, develop protection programs for trees, plan the removal of trees etc. - Diploma in Horticulture (Arboriculture).
For Arboricultural Managers who take care of business activities such as preparing estimates, quotes and tenders, monitoring budgets and financial reports and provide specialist verbal advice on the care and management of trees. - Advanced Diploma in Horticulture (Arboriculture).
For Arboricultural Business Managers who often own large arboricultural businesses or are the principle managers and are responsible for successfully running the business.
These qualifications can be obtained either through formal training or recognition of skills learnt on-the-job or through Arboriculture traineeships. A national arboriculture qualification recognises the level and range of competency of an individual by using units of competency. To achieve any of these qualifications you need to be formally assessed by a qualified assessor from a registered training organisation.
In this presentation I will discuss the training organisations I have found in each state and territory of Australia that have arboriculture related courses and highlight those that stand out for having particularly good programs and facilities.
Training organisations in each state and territory
The following is a summary of training organisations found so far in each state and territory.
South Australia
- Civil Skills & Technology Centre
- Hortus Australia
- Para Worklinks
New South Wales
- Booroongen Djugun College
- Canberra Institute of Technology
- Active Industry Training
- Nurrumbidgee College of Agriculture
- Auswide Projects
Victoria
- Arbortrim
- The Centre
- Infatrain (Also Tasmania)
Western Australia
- Kelyn Training Services
Northern Territory
- Fusion Australia (All states)
- The Australian Training Network (All States)
Tasmania
- Hobart College
- Infatrain (Also Victoria)
Queensland
- Dalby Agricultural College
- Horticultural Training
- Australian Correspondence School
