The climbing and arb community is a pretty small and specialist group. In the UK we really don’t have enough people coming into the industry let alone moving through it into the more technical or management, off the tools roles.

We’ve been working in the recruitment side of the tree world for nearly 20 years and have seen a fair amount of change in that time. You may not agree with the following, and if you don’t, we’d love to know and hear your perspective. The industry has changed a lot in the last few years and these are our thoughts about thinking ahead to when you down tools:

1) Have respect for yourself and your fellow arborists. Hold each other up. The industry is not well understood and working on educating and enthusing people about the specialist roles you carry out will help to elevate the industry’s reputation.

2) Be professional. Whatever stage of your career you’re at it matters. We speak to employers every day and it’s the arborists who are reliable, communicate well and add to a team who get the best roles to progress their careers.

3) Be open to employment. By this we don’t mean working, we mean PAYE. Changes in how HMRC treats self-employment mean that a lot of subbie jobs are not above board. Could you be seen as a disguised employee? There may be fines to pay if you are. A day rate might sound amazing, but you could be skating on this ice and, apart from that, many of the benefits of employment (like the ability to get a mortgage, have holiday pay, sick pay, insurance, PPE... the list goes on) outweigh the risks of subbing.

 4) Plan ahead. You may know a lot about trees and even have a Level 3 in Arboriculture, but if you want to get into surveying a Lantra Professional Tree Inspection course will be a real help, so start to plan before you decide to down tools. Whether that’s your path or you’re interested in management roles there are things you can do to plan a soft landing and stay in the tree world as you head to retirement – ask people in the know and imagine the future you want before you get there.

 5 Spread the word. There just aren’t enough people in the arboriculture industry in the UK so if you love what you do spread the word. Whether it’s to school levers or those who want a career change, your enthusiasm for all things arb can become part of the future of the industry and if there are people coming up the ranks there will be those ready to step into your climbing shoes when the time is right for you. 

Do you agree? Would you add anything to the list? Let us know. Thanks, Kate & Beccy