About

Arbsystem - Arborist Instructors

Gillon Laidlaw, with a lifelong interest and love of trees, founded Arbsystem in order to provide a professional, comprehensive source to meet established needs and novel solutions for education and training.

Arbsystem offers:

A full range of Chainsaw training and assessments for NPTC/City and Guilds Certificates of Competence in Hampshire.

Ranging from a simple NPTC chainsaw course to get to grips with chainsaw basics, to advanced courses such as small tree felling, aerial tree pruning, tree climbing and aerial rescue.

Health and Safety Tree Surveys for Schools, housing estates, businesses and other tree owners.

Preparation of surveys and reports for planning purposes (BS5837) or mortgage requirements.

Educational seminars and courses for school children to inform them about trees and their importance to the environment.

School’s career advice regarding opportunities within arboriculture and forestry.

We’re based in Hampshire and the majority of courses are carried out in a dedicated 5 acre Woodland with a variety of deciduous trees devoted to practical demonstrations and training use located on the edge of the South Downs National Park.

About Gillion Laidlaw

I became certificated to use a chainsaw on the ground and aerially. After I had mastered the basics and grew proficient in the practical side of Arboriculture, I yearned for more. I took the NPTC Assessor’s route, passed and started training and assessing beginners in the industry. I found that training people in the various disciplines was extremely rewarding. To see someone grow with the basic knowledge you have given them and with the same enthusiasm, gave me great job satisfaction.

The company I worked for gained UCAS approved quality assurance accreditation for ISO 9001, 14001 and 18001 in 2012. This was the first combined management system of its kind in the industry and all the managers in the company played a big part in reaching the high standards required.

With a 95% pass rate, I have trained over 150 members of staff for relevant NPTC Level 2 Arboricultural vocational certificates. Whilst in this management role, my IT skills have improved, so that now I am proficient in most of the programmes in the Microsoft office suite. This I now find essential in order to process, organise and dispatch my current work load. By creating an online spread sheet for our London based out-of-hours arboricultural emergency service; I have enabled all on-call managers to contact the available staff and record information centrally whilst roaming.