How to become a tree surgeon in the UK: routes, tickets and what it pays.

September 2026 · 10 min read · By TreeLine Marketing Agency

We spend our days marketing tree surgery businesses, which means we spend a lot of time with the people who run them, and nearly all of them started the same way: as a groundie dragging brash for someone else, wondering when they'd be allowed up the tree. This guide is for the person at that point, or the one thinking about it. It covers the routes in, the certificates that matter, what the job pays, and what it's actually like, drawn from the government's National Careers Service profile, the apprenticeship standard, and the awarding bodies' own course lists.

First, what the job is

A tree surgeon (the trade's word; the profession's word is arborist, and our piece on arborist versus tree surgeon explains the difference) prunes, reduces, dismantles and fells trees, grinds stumps, cuts hedges and clears sites. Much of it is done at height on ropes, all of it involves chainsaws, and most of it happens in tight residential spaces next to houses, cars and greenhouses. It's physical, outdoors in all weathers, and the National Careers Service puts the hours at 40 to 43 a week with weekend work at short notice, which is a polite way of saying storms don't check the diary.

It's also one of the few trades left where you can look back at the job when you knock off and see what you did, and a good climber is never short of work.

The three routes in

1. Start as a groundie

This is how most of the trade came in. You join a crew as a groundworker: dragging and chipping brash, feeding the chipper, running ropes, keeping the site safe and tidy. You learn the job by watching it, and a good employer puts you through your chainsaw tickets, then your climbing tickets, as you prove yourself. The National Careers Service describes this route as starting as a forest labourer or groundworker with further training on the job in chainsaws, ropes, ladders and harnesses.

The advantage is you're earning from day one and learning from people who do it for a living. The risk is an employer who never quite gets round to the training. Ask about it at the interview, and ask what happened to the last groundie.

2. The Arborist apprenticeship

In England the Arborist Level 2 apprenticeship is the structured version of the groundie route: employed and paid, with the training built in and a qualification at the end. The National Careers Service gives the duration as a minimum of two years, combining on-the-job work with off-site learning, and lists GCSEs including English and maths as the usual entry requirement for an intermediate apprenticeship. The standard includes the climbing and aerial rescue award; from September 2025 that's the Lantra Level 3 Award in Accessing a Tree Using a Rope and Harness and Aerial Rescue, which replaced the earlier pair of separate awards. There's also a Forest Craftsperson Level 3 apprenticeship for the forestry side.

If you're under 25 or changing career and can find an employer, this is the route we'd point most people to. You come out with tickets, two years of real work and a certificate that says so.

3. College

Land-based colleges run arboriculture and forestry-and-arboriculture courses at Level 2 and 3, and the T Level in Agriculture, Land Management and Production has an arboriculture pathway. Entry requirements vary by course. College suits people who want the theory (tree biology, pests and diseases, surveying) alongside the practical tickets, and it's the more natural route towards tree officer, consultancy and survey work later. The trade-off is that you're paying to learn rather than being paid, and you'll still need site experience before anyone hands you the climbing kit on a live job.

Volunteering fills gaps on any of the three routes. The Careers Service mentions The Tree Council, Forestry England and the Woodland Trust; local conservation groups are another way to get hours in with a saw under supervision.

The tickets you can't work without

Tree surgery has no licence. Even so, no reputable employer will let you touch a chainsaw without a certificate of competence for it, and no insurer will cover a business whose people don't hold them. The two main awarding bodies are City & Guilds NPTC and Lantra. The trade still refers to the old NPTC “CS” unit numbers, so you'll hear both names for the same thing. The core set, roughly in the order people take them:

Lantra runs equivalent awards, and the apprenticeship now uses Lantra's combined Level 3 access and rescue award. Each course is short, typically a few days with an assessment, and training providers run them all year. What the certificate doesn't give you is judgement; that comes from seasons on the ropes with someone experienced watching.

Alongside the chainsaw and climbing tickets, expect to need:

• A first aid certificate suited to outdoor work. Crews work far from help and the industry's safety guidance expects it.
• A driving licence, and in time the entitlement to tow a chipper. The Careers Service lists it as likely to be needed.
• Further tickets as the work demands: MEWP (cherry picker) operation, stump grinder, rigging, wood chipper. Employers add these as you take on the jobs that need them.
• A head for heights and a level of fitness the job will test on day one.

Two pieces of law that follow you around: climbing kit and rigging gear used to lift people fall under LOLER and must be thoroughly examined at set intervals, and once you employ anyone, employers' liability insurance is compulsory. Both matter more when you run the business than when you're the new groundie, and our tree surgeon insurance guide covers the second one.

What it pays

The National Careers Service puts a tree surgeon's salary at £25,000 a year as a starter and £35,000 with experience. That's employed pay. Freelance climbers charge day rates and are usually better off on paper, with the uncertainty that goes with it. The people earning most in this trade are the ones who end up running a business with two or three crews, which is a different job from climbing and is covered in our guides to how much tree surgeons earn and how to start a tree surgery business.

Where it goes from there

The Careers Service lists the usual progression: supervising a crew, moving into a council arboricultural officer role, running your own business, or teaching recreational tree climbing. Qualifications carry on past the tickets: Level 3 and higher diplomas in arboriculture, degrees for people heading into consultancy and survey work, and professional recognition through the Arboricultural Association's membership grades or the ISA Certified Arborist credential.

For most people who stay, the road is groundie, climber, lead climber, then either a freelance day rate or a business of their own. If you get to the last step, the marketing side is where we come in, and everything on this site from where tree surgeon leads come from to growing from one crew to two is written for that day.

Straight answers before you start

• It's hard on the body. Knees, back, shoulders, hearing if you're careless with ear defenders. Good technique and decent kit are the difference between a twenty-year career and a five-year one.
• Winter is quieter and wetter. Established firms fill it with hedge work, reductions and contract maintenance. New firms feel it.
• The chainsaw is the least dangerous part. Falls, rigging failures and things landing where they shouldn't cause the serious injuries. The rescue element of the climbing ticket is there for a reason.
• The best employers train. A firm that puts its groundies through tickets and keeps its LOLER records straight is a firm worth waiting for. Ask around; the trade is small and people talk.

Frequently Asked Questions