RSK Hi-Line: Arb firm shares method tackling skills shortages

FOR the past five years it has been especially difficult to find arborists. Ten years ago, we received close to 20 CVs a day and it seemed that we were permanently interviewing.

These days, however, the Hi-Line HR team has to work really hard to get applicants. Every company wants applicants to come with qualifications and skills, but there are simply not enough qualified people in the industry to fill the number of vacancies. To get those people into the industry, someone has to train them, and that means taking a lead and being proactive.

Many companies do not have the capacity to take on multiple unqualified people, and for unqualified people looking to join the industry it can be difficult taking time off work to retrain or to find the money to pay for courses (it takes a minimum of four weeks to gain basic tree-surgery qualifications and costs around £2,500).

Hi-Line made the decision to try and break this impasse by starting its own trainee programme for people looking for a career in arboriculture. Many of the people we have trained have become team leaders within the company, so it is a good investment and well worth the money if the effort is made to find the right people.

FINDING THE RIGHT CANDIDATES

Brad during the chainsaw from a rope and harness course. (Image: EA)

For Hi-Line, recruiting military leavers and veterans has been a positive step. Through a partnership we started about five years ago with HighGround, as well as other military charities such as the Royal Marines Charity (RMA) that works with HighGround, we have been able to bring many former service members into the arboriculture industry.
RMA works with all compulsory discharged Royal Marines service leavers, veterans and spouses, providing careers advice and guidance and sourcing employment opportunities and funding for training. HighGround is a charity that provides land-based opportunities for former military personnel and reservists.

We have just hired two former Royal Marines recruits, Aden and Bradley, as full-time employees at Hi-Line through this partnership. RMA and Jacobs sponsored them to attend a residential rural week run by HighGround during which outside presenters, such as Hi-Line Training, introduced them to a range of industries with experience sessions and talks about what careers in each sector involve and the training and qualifications needed.

Both Aden and Brad were keen to pursue careers as arborists, and once we decided they were the right candidates, we enrolled them in our fast-track trainee programme, an intensive three-month course in which recruits attain all of the qualifications they need to join either a Hi-Line domestic work team or a utility arboriculture team.

Currently, around five per cent of Hi-Line’s workforce, including our lead instructor, are former military personnel. By signing the Armed Forces Covenant, the company pledged its support to those looking for new careers after the military.

Some of these people came to us through the partnership with HighGround or through word of mouth and others applied for jobs we advertised. Most have needed full training, which has been fully funded by Hi-Line itself, while others have come with some qualifications that they acquired through military funding.

We have found that military life teaches motivation, problem-solving, teamwork, resilience and adaptability in unfamiliar environments, which are excellent qualities for an arborist to have. On top of that, military leavers are often looking for something that offers excitement, and the outdoor and technical nature of our work provides that, so it is a great fit.

CHANGING THE PERCEPTION OF ‘TREE CUTTERS’

Aden and Brad get to work during an arb experience day. (Image: EA)

Obviously, if we want to tackle the problem in the long term, we also have to encourage young people to consider arboriculture as a career. To that end, a large part of the Hi-Line Training team’s work is in giving talks in schools and at career fairs, especially for children and young adults who are starting down the GCSE, A level or other school qualifications route, to inform them of what arboriculture offers as a career.

In particular, we make sure people know that while pruning and cutting trees down are part of the job, there is a lot more to the industry, and career options include groundspeople, climbers, ecologists, machinery operators, surveyors and consultants. Educating the next generation of school leavers, apprentices and employees is essential if we are to encourage more people into not only arboriculture but also the land-based sector as a whole.

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It is only over the past few years that arboriculture has really established itself as its own industry rather than as a part of forestry, gardening or agriculture.
As there has been a wider focus on the benefits of trees and many planting schemes have been planned, people are starting to understand that arboriculture is a specialist industry with skilled workers; hopefully this will lead to more people exploring it as a career choice. Until then, the only way to get people into the industry is to find them and train them ourselves.

Kirsty McNicol is managing director at Hi-Line Training, an RSK group company and an industry-leading training centre that offers arboriculture, forestry and chainsaw-related training and assessments for both individuals and organisations. As well as training Hi-Line’s employees, Hi-Line Training is also an independent training provider that serves other arboriculture companies and individuals in Devon and across the south of England.