A Tree Surgeons job is to improve the health, appearance and safety of trees. This job includes planting, tree surgery, health and safety assessments, and heavy equipment.

They use their knowledge and training of trees to understand what care they need and why, and with the help of a Ground Worker, they’ll provide this specialist care.

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Useful Skills To Put On Your CV:

• Self-belief skills – self-belief isn’t just confidence but perseverance. You’ll be presented with environmental challenges where you may have to try several approaches to find one that works best for biodiversity.
• Good communication skills and teamworking skills – you’ll usually be working as part of a team, and sharing your findings with an organisation or client.
• Good problem solving skills – a creative approach to problems is often needed in forestry work.
• Good organisation skills – forestry often means doing field work in the great outdoors, but there’s a lot of paperwork involved too. You could be analysing data or making reports on your recommendations for environmentally sustainable action.
• Self-management skills – you’ll usually receive training from your employer, but it’s up to you to have a keen interest in forestry and the passion to top up your skills and knowledge.

How Do You Get Skills?

Vocational qualifications and work experience will help you build these skills over time.

Build Your Skills With the FREE Young Professional Programme

School and college

Whichever type of forestry role you specialise in, it will be useful to have at least five GCSEs (or the equivalent) with passing grades of 9-4 (A to C) including English, maths, at least one science, and possibly geography.

You will also benefit from having at least two A-levels with good passing grades. These will help you get into a junior job where you can build skills and knowledge with training, or apply for a degree. You could also apply for a relevant apprenticeship.

You can also study towards a T Level in Agriculture, Land Management and Production, which has a work placement built into the course programme.

University degrees and graduates

If you think university is the right choice for you, some useful related degrees include:

• Biology
• Engineering
• Environmental science
• Geography

Forestry Apprenticeships

An alternative route is to take your first step into a forestry career with an Arboriculturist apprenticeship.

You’ll get to build skills and knowledge whilst earning a salary, and gain a free qualification. You can study apprenticeships from Level 2 (entry level) to Level 6/7 (degree level).

Training

Finding courses that allow you to build your forestry and tree surgeon skills are a great option.

Whether they’re online, part of a full qualification, or a one-off training course, they’re perfect if you’re starting out in your career.

Did you know? Lantra provide training and assessments across the UK and Ireland that build your forestry skills and most importantly, your health and safety knowledge.

Starting out in forestry

There are many ways you can start your forestry career. To become a Tree Surgeon, you might choose to start as a Ground Worker, supporting Tree Surgeons with their work.

Once you become a qualified Tree Surgeon and gain experience, you could become a team supervisor or manager.

What next?

Some Tree Surgeons work for companies, whereas some choose to become self-employed and start their own business once they have the right skills and experience.

Work Experience Tips

It can help your application if you have previously done work experience or volunteering in a conservation or forestry environment.

Examples of relevant work experience include:

• Work shadowing (even if it’s just for a day)
• Work placements in a company
• Industry placements on a degree course

Work experience tips

Volunteering Tips

There are lots of opportunities for forestry volunteering across the UK. Visit these organisations to find out more:

• The Conservation Volunteers
• National Trust
• Wildlife Trusts

Volunteering tips

Where could you work?

As a Tree Surgeon, you’ll spend a lot of time outdoors, in all kinds of weather.

There may be a lot of travel involved to get to specific tree locations, and some jobs may be short notice, like emergency work after tree damage from a storm.

Example daily job responsibilities

• Cutting trees, branches and logs
• Planting trees and plants
• Identifying hazards
• Assessing tree health and treating them
• Servicing forestry equipment
• Creating tree survey reports
• Working with clients and doing administrative tasks

To find jobs for young people in this role, search on jobs boards for early career roles with these words in the title:

• Tree Surgeon
• Arborist
• Tree Climber
• Arboriculturist

If you’re interested in forestry, you might also like to explore a career as a:

• Forestry Worker
• Agroforester

These websites might be able to help you find forestry experience or a role that’s a good fit for you:

• Lantra
• The Conservation Volunteers
• National Trust
• Wildlife Trust
• Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM)
• British Ecological Society

These employers all carry our Youth Friendly Employer Mark. We work with them to make sure that they are providing great support and opportunities to young people.

Click on an employer to find out more about them and the youth-friendly opportunities they offer, from work experience and apprenticeships through to graduate schemes.