Newlands Training supplies a range of basic and intermediate chainsaw courses supporting a wide variety of occupations, the full list can be found on newlandstraining.com.

For more advanced needs, Newlands Training offer an Operate Chain Saw from Rope and Harness course, which allows operatives to use chainsaws in trees, undertaking various activities from simple pruning to crown reduction and sectional felling. Please note this course requires climbing skills as a pre-requisite. NPTC provide the necessary range of qualifications and Newlands Training offer experienced course instructors who teach this programme on a regular basis all year round.

In addition or as an alternative Newlands Training also offer a NPTC certificate (unit 47) Safe Use of a Chainsaw from a Mobile Elevated Work Platform (MEWP). This allows competent chainsaw users to access higher levels using a MEWP, the course is ideal for pruning limbs and removing vertical stem sections without the need for a climbing qualification. Please be aware some pre-requisite are required for this course, for more information please contact Newlands Training on 01305 848454.

Lesley Simpson, Managing Director of Newlands Training has said ‘So many jobs within the arboricultural industry require people to work with dangerous machinery. Our chainsaw courses teach people to respect safety procedures, their equipment and eliminate some of the risk involved with this type of work’. She added ‘Our LANTRA Awards and NPTC courses support the Health and Safety at Work Act, the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, and are designed to give students the ability to operate machinery with competence and confidence’.

EuCAN is an exciting conservation project set up by West Dorset educational charity, The Kingcombe Trust, to enable people from the UK to contribute to wildlife conservation across Europe. The body is funded by the Leonardo da Vinci section of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme and is dedicated to encouraging engagement in conservation projects across Europe.

The organisation has established partnerships with wildlife and orchard conservation organisations in five countries of the EU; France, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Belgium. This enables groups from the UK to travel by train, mini bus or boat (this is a no-fly operation) to work with these partners to carry out practical management tasks or species monitoring.

‘Our aim with the programme is to have a productive exchange of ideas, expertise, and resources with the accompanying social, cultural and political benefits at the community level. Not only is this project helping all partners to share the challenge of environmental management, it also gives our participants a much better understanding of nature conservation on a European scale and training in the use of power tools and hand tools,’ said Nigel Spring, EuCAN Project Coordinator.

The first two weekends of training for the 2010 project took place at the Kingcombe Centre last month and since then one group has visited La Brenne in central France for a fortnight’s placement.
‘We were delighted to deliver the chain saw course and brush cutting training for such a worthwhile project,’ said Lesley Simpson, managing director of Newlands Training. ‘Chainsaw and brush cutter training are some of our most popular courses and the trained volunteers will be able to use their new found skills in land based work when they return to the UK.’

Those interested in joining the EuCAN programme must comply with the following criteria:
•    A resident in the UK – fit and prepared to do practical work for 9 days in the 14 day trip and 3-4 days cultural and ecological training
•    Enjoy living and working in a team of likeminded people in beautiful places
•    Want to contribute to the conservation effort of our EU partners
•    Want to learn about the history, culture, languages and ecology of other nations
•    Are over 18, not in full time education, but are in employment, retired or out of work

To find out more about Newlands Training and the courses on offer in Dorset and Devon please contact us.

For press enquiries please contact: Lisa Worthington, Tandem Marketing – e 01305 756584 or 07957 542878.