The London Tree Officers Association

The London Tree Officers Association (June seminar covered a subject that is close to our heart; Succession in Arboriculture.

John Parker, CEO of the Arboricultural Association, put the succession crisis in Arboriculture in the context of the national skills crisis and asked:

🌳Where is the next generation coming from?

🌳How do we offer a clear career path?

🌳How do we make sure our industry represents all of communities we work in?

John explored the challenges the greatest of which…

“Nobody knows what Arboriculture is!”

John stressed that it’s a good time to be campaigning, never have trees been more in the minds of the public and politicians.

And the Association have been addressing the issues including:

🌳Successfully Lobbying the Department of Education and the Careers Advice Service to include arboriculture in its database of careers

🌳Getting the Forestry Education Fund to include Arboriculture

🌳Working with the Department for Work and Pensions and Job Centres

🌳Engaging with the New Futures Program engaging prison leavers in the world of work

🌳Building an Arb Ambassador scheme of members to raise awareness with schools and colleges. There are now 90 Arb Ambassadors (see link for you to apply in the comments).

🌳SBY brought 60 children to the Arb Show in 2025!

John finished with a call to action: “So yes, succession is challenging, but we are working hard to address these challenges, and together we can secure the future of Arboriculture!”

The development of the Level 4 and Level 6 Arboricultural Apprenticeships has been a significant in step forward.

Ros Burnley of Adrow presented on career progression through the apprenticeships.

🌳from Arborist (L2, GCSE level) which has 15 training providers across the UK,

🌳Through Arboriculturist (L4, Diploma), which is now in its second year and has 28 apprentices at Plumpton & Myerscough colleges

🌳To Professional Arboriculturist (L6 Degree), which starts this September at Myerscough college is expecting to have an intake of 50 apprentices a year!!!

….so APPLY NOW!!!!

This is immensely positive and was reinforced by Blue Jenkins who is a Level 4 Arboricultural Apprentice at Three Rivers District Council.

Blue presented how, following a degree in chemistry, she had discovered a love of trees and nature through volunteer work.

The apprenticeship at the council has enabled her to learn arboriculture while shadowing the Tree Officers. Projects that align with the learning goals, build her competencies towards being able to operate independently as an arboriculturist.

Luke was enthused by the seminar: “As a contributing member of the Apprenticeship Trailblazer Group, which was brilliantly led by Ros, it was particularly moving to hear Blue speak about finding ‘her vocation’ through the Level 4 Apprenticeship.

It was 2021 when I first presented, on a Lockdown webinar, to the Arboricultural Association on the Succession Crisis in Arboriculture. I have been really gratified to see that John and the Association have pursued those threads and are making progress.

John is absolutely right that we need to build awareness of this wonderfully rewarding profession among young people, and we must strive to have a fully inclusive workforce.

I may be being naïve, but arboriculture may be one of the few professional disciplines that does not have its entry level roles wiped out by AI, so I encourage people hoping to have a future in the natural and built environment professions to join us!

…oh and now there are 91 Arb Ambassadors!”