I feel that there's nothing solid and it's a bit hit and miss.
I done my course over a period of a year or so back in 2005 and travelled to Burleigh to do it.
It cost $4K and gave me Level 3 Arb however since then I have done a few more things.
A lot of people have trouble getting past the L3 up here, trying to get say L5 arb is virtually impossible.
Last time I checked there is no actual training here for Level5's ... it's all ROPL if you can find a place to sign you off for it but the key is there's no training for it. You basically have to train yourself then show what you know to get it ROPL'd.
It's also a problem that the Tafe's dont do much ... but in saying that I assure you that there's not a stack of people beating down their doors for arb training either.
What I liked about the course I did was it was complete and packaged. Not really a subject here or there and try to piece it all together. Some people get a saw ticket for felling small trees, then a ticket for something else but it's incomplete ... like they're holding a few pieces of an arb qualification but not the whole box and dice.
I also feel arborists should know how to climb and rig, that's part of it, but it's hard to get proper classes together like the Dee guys do down in Sydney. Having all the theory would be like a mechanic who never got his hands dirty or pulled an engine apart.
Here's a link to their thread on it and they were doing Level 2. Our course was similar, real trees and tree work but we had the other arb stuff too rounding us off not just saw guys logging or felling.
Arb 2, Class 2007 - Mt Wilson
Frankly I personally feel the "hacks" are multiplying, and with the customers really not giving a hoot about quality or professionalism and basing a lot of the tree work on price then that doesn't help training, nor the trained people. Many of them have quite a vocal negative attitude to training. Dont know why but they do.