City and Guilds 0039-30 Assisted Felling: what the handbook says

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. The pages used are the City and Guilds NPTC handbook for the award, the 2026 City and Guilds list and the NPTC factsheet. Assisted felling means felling with a winch, rope or similar pulling system to help control the direction of fall. The guide on chainsaw and tree work tickets by country carries the number in a table.

At a glance

Item	What the official source says
Awarding body	City and Guilds, under the NPTC name
Title	Level 3 Certificate of Competence in Assisted Felling
City and Guilds number	0039-30
Ofqual number	603/7357/X
Guided learning hours	24, with a total qualification time of 27 (handbook version 1.7, December 2025)
Age	16 or over
Grading	Met or not met
Status in the 2026 list	Open to certification, registration expiry December 31, 2027, certification expiry December 31, 2030

What the handbook says it covers

The handbook says the award is for people who use chainsaws as part of work in arboriculture, forestry or other industries and need the knowledge and skills to carry out assisted felling. Its content list is risk assessment, emergency planning, legislation, industry best practice, safety considerations, equipment, felling techniques and methods, and assisted felling itself.

The unit text, number 301, lists the records involved: a site specific risk assessment, a method statement and work equipment inspection records, and why keeping records matters. It names the equipment as the chainsaw, winches, ropes, cables, strops, connectors, felling aids and pulleys or blocks. It lists what feeds a load estimate: species, branching habit, lean against the felling direction, wind and tree size. It covers choosing the pulling equipment and the felling direction, installing pulling systems by several methods, checks on attachment points, and the position of the pulling equipment and the people. It also lists the consequences of an assisted fell done badly: injury, property damage, equipment damage, environmental damage and financial loss.

Entry requirements

The handbook says candidates must hold 0039-20 and 0039-21, or equivalent versions, and meet the minimum age of 16. Its version history notes that the prerequisites were updated in June 2021.

Assessment

The handbook describes one assessment type: a one to one practical assessment with oral questioning by an approved City and Guilds NPTC assessor. Grading is met or not met. The handbook says the practical observation and oral questioning should take between 1.5 and 2 hours. Candidates have to finish within 24 months of the date of initial registration, and the handbook says registration is valid for two years. The assessor has to hold a current First Aid at Work certificate, according to the unit text.

Refresher and renewal

The Health and Safety Executive leaflet Chainsaws at work (INDG317) says all chainsaw operators should do regular refresher or update training. It suggests every two to three years for occasional users and every five years for full-time users. FISA's training guide 805, updated August 2025, says INDG317 recommends three to five years. It gives its own recommendation of recorded refresher or update training at least every five years for most machinery work, chainsaw and aerial tree work included. The two documents word the interval differently, and both are recommendations.

The list of chainsaw CPD modules in the 0041-01 handbook has no module for assisted felling. City and Guilds does list a separate Utility Arboriculture certificate, 0038-34 Assisted Tree Felling (Ofqual number 603/7889/X), and a matching utility CPD module, 0041-10, in its 2026 fees list.

The handbook for this award gives no expiry period for the certificate. Its two-year figure is the length of a registration to take the assessment.

Old codes

The City and Guilds NPTC factsheet lists the Level 3 Award in Assisted Fell Operations, 0021-03, Ofqual number 600/6429/8, 19 guided learning hours, under "New Qualification", so it carries no CS code. The 2026 list shows 0021-03 as closed to certification, with certification expiry December 31, 2021. No page read states that 0039-30 replaces it. See old NPTC chainsaw codes and the awards that replaced them.

The Lantra Awards award

Lantra Awards has a Level 3 Award in Assisted Fell Operations, Ofqual number 600/5705/1. Its specification describes winch assisted and rope assisted directional felling, gives 14 guided learning hours and a total qualification time of 20.5, and names the Level 3 award for felling trees over 380mm as the prerequisite.

Contains public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.