Manual tree felling using a chainsaw is a crucial skill across arboriculture, emergency services, land management, and forestry. It is important that anyone learning these skills already possesses certain preliminary skills before undertaking training in tree felling, so they remain safe throughout their learning, assessment and future employment. For instance, learners should have chainsaw handling skills before training in basic tree felling and they should have the skills to fell a standard tree before training to fell complex trees.
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Skills Insight and ForestWorks are undertaking this project to investigate the addition of prerequisites to the tree felling units or alternative mechanisms to ensure learners who enrol in tree felling possess the necessary skills.
Our team will engage with the Training Package Assurance Body and State Training Authorities to seek advice on the feasibility of prerequisites and how to best support learner safety given the high-risk of the activity and variability in delivery across training providers and industries. Consultation will also take place with employers, registered training organisations and unions from across relevant industries to understand the various viewpoints on the issue.
Out of this, we will draft recommendations and an activity plan to support skill development in tree felling while promoting safety and adherence to delivery standards. Feedback will be collected on the recommendations and activity plan to check they are in line with stakeholder needs and expectations. A report including this information will be submitted to the Department of Employment and Workforce Relations to inform future work to strengthen the tree felling units and their delivery.
Opportunities to contribute will be available throughout the project via this website.
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Timeline
Project team
Belinda Tierney
General Manager
ForestWorks
[email protected]
Rob Stowell
Project Consultant
[email protected]
Project background
This project follows the 2023-24 Tree Felling Project, which updated the units for basic, intermediate and advanced tree felling skills. During the project, there was strong industry support for the addition of prerequisites to the units, to ensure learners have the necessary experience before enrolling. However, this was not within the scope of that project and required additional time to investigate. Adding prerequisites to the units presents challenges in maintaining their accessibility and reaching a consensus on the appropriate prerequisites to use. Read more about the Challenges in Establishing Prerequisites for Tree Felling Units as outlined in the previous project.
Another project is also underway to develop and pilot a protocol for allocating trees to RTOs for training and assessment. See the Tree Allocation Partnerships Project for more information.
This project focuses on identifying the prerequisite skills required for the basic, intermediate and advanced manual tree felling units in the FWP Forest and Wood Products Training Package.
The project team has consulted with the Commonwealth and all State/Territory Training Authorities on the use of prerequisites in training package qualifications and how this is likely to be influenced by Qualifications Reform and the recently released Training Package Organising Framework. A briefing paper, developed by ForestWorks, on the use of prerequisites in training package qualifications is currently being finalised.
In May, the project team conducted a series of focus groups with the arboriculture and vegetation management, forestry, land management, and emergency services sectors. The purpose of these focus groups was to gather stakeholder perspectives on the prerequisite skills required for tree felling at basic, intermediate, and advanced levels. To facilitate this discussion, the project team prepared an Issues and Options Paper outlining various methods to meet these prerequisite skill requirements. The Paper will be published as part of the draft report available in late July 2025.
The outcomes from the sector-specific focus groups have been reviewed by a cross-sector focus group held in early June 2025. The project team is currently analysing the results of these focus groups and is preparing a draft report that will propose a way forward based on the discussions and outcomes.
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Next steps
The draft report – shaped by the outcomes and insights from recent focus groups – will be released for stakeholder review as part of the Broad Consultation period in late July to August 2025. The report will outline the preliminary recommendations for introducing and implementing strategies to address prerequisite skill requirements for manual tree felling units. It will also include an action plan detailing the objectives, methodology and deliverables required to execute the recommendations, including any solutions that result in updates to the training package products.
This project aims to identify solutions for establishing appropriate pre-requisite requirements – or alternative approaches – for the basic, intermediate, and advanced manual tree felling units of competency.
Insights from consultations to date have been included in a draft report submitted to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. The draft report, Dealing with pre-existing skill requirements in manual tree felling units of competency – a draft report on the recommendations and approach to implementation, outlines preliminary recommendations and an approach to implementation of strategies to address prerequisite skill requirements for manual tree felling units.
We’re inviting your feedback on proposed recommendations and the draft action plan included in the report between 17 July and 20 August 202. Three online sessions are planned for August where you can find out more about the report, policy around pre-requisites in qualifications and project next steps. You are also welcome to contact the project team at [email protected].
Background and consultation to date
At the beginning of this project, ForestWorks undertook a review of Commonwealth and State/Territory policies and practices regarding the use of pre-requisites in training package qualifications. This was followed by stakeholder consultations during May and June 2025, to explore how pre-requisites requirements could be addressed for the basic, intermediate, and advanced manual tree felling units of competency. These discussions were carried out through sector-specific focus groups, covering the Forestry, Emergency Services, Land Management, and Arboriculture and Vegetation Management sectors.
Stakeholder feedback from these sessions informed the development of a consensus position on appropriate pre-requisite arrangements for the manual tree felling units. To bring these perspectives together, a cross-sector focus group was held on 10 June 2025. This session provided a platform to consolidate outcomes from the earlier consultations and finalise a unified proposal. Across all discussions, participants consistently emphasised that safety must remain the guiding principle when establishing pre-requisite arrangements.
Thank you to everyone who generously shared their insights. We greatly appreciate the time and energy volunteered by all involved.
Register for an online feedback session
Three online sessions are planned for August to:
- brief stakeholders on policy regarding pre-requisites in training package qualifications
- outline the draft proposal for addressing pre-requisite skill requirements in basic, intermediate and advanced manual tree felling units of competency
- gather stakeholder feedback on the proposed recommendations and action plan included in the draft report
- outline the next steps of the project.
Register for the session that best suits you.
Online sessions
This stage has not yet commenced.
At the finalisation stage, final checks are conducted and the outcomes of the project are submitted to the Department for consideration. Following this, outcomes are published or enacted.
These Skills Insight JSC projects are being managed with the support of ForestWorks as part of their collaborative partnership with Skills Insight. ForestWorks has an enduring and strong connection working with the forestry, timber, paper, fibre and furnishing industries and have been engaged by Skills Insight to deliver these projects in partnership.