Random Jottings

I have been trying to get some feedback on a couple of surveys that Lantra is running.
The first, a feasibility study for the development of an online skills recording system, as a business tool, which logs training and skills. It would allow employers to manage, plan, record and retrieve details of their staff training and development. It would flag up the requirements for refreshers and updating to ensure that the business remains compliant with contract requirements etc. (My input into this was for the arboricultural and forestry sector, although a similar survey is underway for amenity horticulture, landscape and sports turf – see Lantra website for details or contact Charlotte Binnie, or David Winn at Lantra).

The second survey, into the development of an Apprenticeship training Agency (ATA), an organisation that can attract, select and place apprentices within the industry as well as support them through out their training period. An ATA would recruit, screen, skills test and interview candidates based on the businesses’ specific needs, then employ the apprentice on behalf of the business, managing all payroll and HR functions for the term of the apprenticeship. This would be for the whole of the land-based sector.

We are constantly being told that the quickest way to get a message around, and to get folk engaged now is to use the social networking sites. That being the case I placed the links for the surveys:

Skills Framework:

http://www.snapsurveys.com/swh/surveylogin.asp?k=133597347494

Apprenticeship Training Agency:

http://www.snapsurveys.com/swh/surveylogin.asp?k=133588309446

onto discussion groups though Linkedin, the skills framework link was added to the Arb Assoc Facebook page, I tweeted them to followers, and added them to discussions on the Arbtalk forum, as well as sending the links by email to my various contacts.

The quickest response came from the direct emailing into established networks of contacts. It was, however, only slightly ahead of responses from Arbtalk.

It does tend to suggest that folk will get involved and are genuinely interested in the things going on in our industry.

Oh, and if you want to show how good the response times are on HortWeek, just click on the links above.

Bright and early this morning, as I was heading out of the door, I had a phone call. It seems that someone in the office had passed on my mobile number and suggested that I would be the right person to offer some careers advise to a potential new entrant to the arboricultural industry; at least that was what I gleaned after a few moments conversation

The chap said that he was “wanting to get into work cutting down trees”, and wanted to know what training he might need. I asked if he was just looking at felling, thinking that he might want a career in forestry, but alas, no. “I might do some climbing as well”, he offered when pressed. Here was someone looking for the fastest route into working in the industry, but without wanting the additional baggage of tree knowledge. I outlined the training courses and routes into the industry available and suggested he speak to local companies to see what work was available, possibly starting as a groundsman before looking at undertaking training in climbing and chainsaw operation.

This is not a rare occurrence; I get about one similar enquiry a week being passed on to me. Usually it is people wanting to find work or change direction. Often they think that all they will need to do is collect the appropriate ‘tickets’, CS30, 31 etc, and the tree world will be their proverbial oyster. Most come across as having no real feeling or interest in trees. They are a means to an end.

I am coming to the conclusion that we need to look seriously at how to ‘professionalise’ our industries. To discourage the cowboy operators. Some twelve months ago, at a meeting in Belfast, I was asked why it wasn’t possible to have a card that showed what level of training and expertise had been attained, thus giving Gold, Silver or Bronze status presumably. I’m not sure that is the best route to go down, but it might be that start of an interesting conversation to have over the morning coffee.

There is muttering in corners, and chats over coffee at meetings in which the dreaded letters CPD seem creep into the conversation. CPD, an ominous acronym for something lurking just outside the circle of our activity. Clearly something best avoided at all costs. The ostrich approach at its finest.
Then we have the standard British objections, which get trotted out at frequent intervals as justification for just maintaining the status quo;

1. We have never done it before
2. No one else has done it before
3. Someone did it once and it didn’t work
4. It needs more thought
5. You don’t understand the situation
6. The manager says it can’t be done
7. The chap at ……….ltd down the road says it can’t be done
8. My mate says it can’t be done
9. Our industry/business is different
10. It won’t work in a large business/industry                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
11. It won’t work in a small business/industry
12. It won’t work in this business/industry
13. We don’t have the time/money/equipment/skills
14. It’s too theoretical and woolly
15. It’s too technical and complicated
16. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks
17. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t
18. You’re right, but……… (complete as appropriate)
19. We should form a committee/working group/sub group to look into this further

In these days when money is tight, the temptation is always to hide behind the barricades and wait for better times. To look upon things negatively, rather than critically.

My view is that there are a couple of key questions to ask before starting down the list above. Firstly, “What is it?” Not as straight forward a question as it sounds. Leastways, the answer isn’t straightforward. The dictionary definition might be something like, “ The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skills, and the development of personal qualities necessary for execution of professional and technical duties throughout an individual’s working life”. (Construction Industry Council, UK 1986). But there are different styles of scheme, some based on inputs, such as collecting points (and we all know that “points mean prizes”) or hours of activity. Others based on outputs, evidence of learning or new skills. All too often the standard objections start getting rolled out without any real understanding of what they are objecting to. We enter the domain of,

“I know that you think you understand what you thought I said, but I’m not sure that you realise, that what you heard is not what I meant.”

The second key question, and for me the more important is, “ what are the potential outcomes”, or more significantly, “What benefit is it to me/my business”. ‘Benefit’ here should always have a positive influence on the bottom line. The benefits might include:

§ Maintained staff competence
§ Maintained staff skills and behaviour
§ Improved/broadened knowledge and skills of staff
§ Improved staff performance
§ Improved business competitiveness
§ Differentiation from other competitors

If there are real positive outcomes for the individual and benefits for the business, it becomes a straightforward business decision. If the improved profitability outweighs any costs, it’s worth doing.

CPD looks to me like an opportunity, not a threat. The trick will be to get involved at an early stage so that the scheme is shaped to the requirements of our industries.

The trees and timber industries have suddenly got bigger.  That is to say the number of those employed in the industries has suddenly jumped according to the latest research from Lantra Sector Skills Council.  That is not to say that there has been a sudden increase in the actual number of bodies, but rather that the way in which the numbers are calculated has changed.  (There will be a temptation at this point to mutter “lies, damned lies and statistics”).

The data suggests that there are approximately 24,000 people employed in the arboricultural industry in the UK.  Of course, that does not mean that there are 24,000 arborists.  The research does suggest that there has been a net gain in the number of folk working in the sector over the past 12 months but, more worryingly, it concludes that the percentage of hard to fill vacancies has risen with some 42% of vacancies being reported as ‘hard to fill’.

More worrying to my way of thinking was the paradox of, on one hand, the industry becoming increasingly ‘ticket’ driven, with employers seeing the trade tests as a way of improving the standard of entrants to the industry; whilst on the other employers noting the difference between legislative requirements and the actual skills and experience needed to work to a commercial rate and standard.

Arboriculture and forestry have never really fully embraced the apprenticeship route as a way to ensure the training of skilled staff.  New entrants to the industry have been known to enrol on an apprenticeship, get their ‘CS’ tickets and then leave to take up employment.  Not surprisingly they enter the industry without the skills and competency to work at a full commercial rate.  They have, in essence, learned to pass a test but not been given the chance to consolidated that learning.  

From the discussions at the Arboticulture and Forestry Advisory Group (AFAG) it is clear that the ideal situation would be for folk to train, consolidate, and then be assessed before being given their ‘CS’ tickets and let loose on poor unsuspecting trees.  It is also clear that contract managers often will not let those without the relevant full ticket work on sites, thus preventing them achieving that period of consolidation prior to certification.

Maybe the time has come to look more closely at the apprenticeship route and to consider whether we want the new entrants to the industry to learn by their mistakes on the job.

Those wishing to take a look at the Lantra labour market information can find it on the Lantra website from the link below.

http://www.lantra.co.uk/getattachment/695aebe1-7121-46ec-8377-8339374fd42e/Trees-Timber-Industry-in-Great-Britain-Size,-Structure-Skills.aspx

The nights are fair drawing in and we are knocking on the door of Christmas.  I know all this as, under the cover of darkness, some miserable miscreant has helped them self to the top eight feet of a (previously) beautiful Cryptomeria japonica in my local park.  A Christmas tree which will retain its needles. The really sad thing being that, looking around the same area, I can see the their Christmas trees for the next eight or ten years. 

Now, this may be a sad indication of the world in which we live, rather than just the mindlessness of some individuals within our society; the escalating cost of trees bringing some to the point whereby they cannot afford to buy even a small tree at Christmas.   Being naturally a ‘glass half full’ sort of person, I see a glimmer of hope in all this.  There is still a desire by some to eschew the poxy plastic trees and to only accept a ‘real’ tree at Christmas.  Then again the cynic in me does think that perhaps it was just easier to steal.

Having said all this, I will be keeping a watchful eye out in about a month’s time, when folk start to strip out their decorations, to see who it is that throws out an eight foot Cryptomeria Christmas tree.

There is a saying that you have no right to complain about the government if you don’t take the time to vote.  Dave Dowson, of Treelife, said something similar at last year’s Amenity Arboricultural conference, at a time when the Cert Arb and Dip Arb were being revised and rewritten.  His view being that if you don’t engage with the consultations you shouldn’t complain if the qualifications that result are not what you wanted.  Well, its consultation time again.  The National Occupational Standards for Trees and Timber (Forestry and Arboriculture) have been revised and are out from consultation until 8^th November.   These are the standards on which qualifications will be based over the next few years and, contrary to popular opinion, there have been a number of significant changes.  Doubtless there will be those hortics who read this that think, “forestry and Arb, nothing to do with me”.  Well, there is a move to stop the proliferation of differing standards as, for example, tree planting in arboriculture and forestry is the same job as planting in horticulture so common units may well appear in the Trees and Timber standards as well as in the Horticulture standards.   That being the case it is worth anyone logging on (pardon the tree based pun) and having a look at a couple of the units.  There are over sixty in total but very few folk will want to look at all of them.  The standards can be found at:http://www.lantra.co.uk/Standards-and-Qualifications/NOS/Trees-and-Timber-NOS.aspx  For those who do take part in the consultation, as an added bonus there is the opportunity to win a chainsaw as the names of those who take the time to engage with the consultation will be entered into a prize draw for a Stihl 261 saw.

Have you noticed the creeping proliferation of QR codes?  It started when they snuck in as a little 6 or 7mm square at the side of you name on bills and other such correspondence. Now they are to be found all over the place. 

Most recently I visited a large Land-based college and found that the plant labels were done with these QR codes.  Something that I thought the garden centre trade might have caught onto before now.  The time when the plant and cultivation details are encapsulated on the labels in these codes for the customer to access is not just around the corner… it is upon us. 

 So, watch out for these tricky little devils, they are everywhere!

You would not believe how difficult it is to give money away.  There are plenty of folk out there who are only to quick to try to take it off you when you don’t especially want them to have it (HMRC usually being top of the list), but when you do want to hand it over everyone becomes extra cautious and looks for the catch. What brought this on was the Women and Work funding available though Lantra, the Sector Skills Council (rather than the awarding body part of the organisation).  In essence, if you are a woman employed (or volunteering) in any one of several areas of the land-based sector, including horticulture and arboriculture, and you are undertaking some training costing more than about £650 between June 2011 and February 2012 you, or more likely your employer, could be eligible to claim £450 back from Lantra.  Now I firmly believe that this training is taking place and that employers are paying for it, be it chainsaw courses, pesticide courses, manual handling or even administration management courses for the office staff.  However, I contact some businesses to make them aware of the availability of the funding, and you would think I was trying to flog them double glazing rather than offering them money.   What is worse is that I know that in the coming year, once this scheme has shut its doors, I will have folk telling me that there is no funding for training in the industry. 

(Details of the Women and Work scheme are available at http://www.lantra.co.uk/womenandwork)

When I told my father that I intended to follow in his footsteps and become a gardener he gave me several pieces of useful guidance.  His first was that it was, on the whole, poorly paid and poorly thought of, and I might want to think again.  His second was that a good gardener should always carry a pocketknife, a pencil and a piece of string.  The third was not to specialise too soon.  Rashly, I ignored the first, but on the whole he was right.  When I was a student I found that there was significantly different reaction from folk if I told them that I was a student rather than saying that I was a gardener.  The assumption being that I would move on to something better in due course.  Looking back through the old gardening books its clear that gardening was once more highly thought of as a profession than it is now.  The second I have more or less followed from the day I started out.  I may not have the piece of string in my pocket, but I have carried a notepad and pen or pencil, and a pocketknife of some description almost every day of my life.  This is no longer a piece of advice that we can safely give to young people joining the industry as the knife has ceased to be a tool of the trade and become an offensive weapon.    By far the best advice for me was the third.  My father’s thinking was that if I climbed to a position where I was managing or supervising others, the wider my range of expertise the better.  Consequently my training included everything from fruit and vegetables through to arboriculture and garden design.    

Now we seem to have people wishing to enter the industry and select training in the very narrow range of skills needed for a particular role and any suggestion that including other aspects of horticulture is met with resistance.  Instead of turning out well-rounded horticulturists with a solid plant knowledge, we have practitioners who are well skilled in a quite narrow area of expertise.  This limits their ability to transfer to other areas of the industry when job hunting and may mean that, if they achieve the dizzy heights where they are managing others, they will have a limited understanding of the work being undertaken by other staff.

It’s called ‘Flaming June’ and I suspect that, given the fluctuations between drought and downpours, some folk will be looking got use a different adjective.
 

We are now well into the garden show season.  Harrogate, Malvern, Chelsea and Gardener’s World Live behind us, Hampton Court and Tatton still to come. 

No doubt there will be some more great gardens on show.  Some more inspirational ideas.  More stunning plants.  Superb landscaping.  However, there will also, inevitably, be some more out and out turkeys.  Some of which will slip through the net and might even manage to get a medal.

I have come to the conclusion that the trick to spotting the good from the rest is to walk around the show and then go for a coffee, and then see if you can actually remember any of the gardens.  If you remember them in detail, for features you liked, the chances are that they were actually pretty good.  If, on the other hand, you remember them in detail, for features you disliked, the chances are that they were actually pretty woeful. 

And if you can barely recall which garden the features you remember came from, well you either have a bad memory or it was a terribly average garden.  By the time you get home you only recall the very good and the very bad, the rest having, thankfully, been erased forever from your memory.

All that said I did have my ‘road to Damascus’ moment a few years ago.  It was that point when I started to think of the major garden shows as being the horticultural equivalent of a motor show, or fashion show, and show gardens as concept cars or catwalk designs. 

They should push at the boundaries; try new materials and new methods of construction and prove something of a talking point, not just be the same old hackneyed idea run out for another year. 

By the time that the concept car or haute couture dress gets into the high street outlet it has been re-assembled to become more usable.  Likewise the garden designs can aim to be challenging and offer something new to the market place as opposed to aiming at being pretty and forgettable.