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i too am also looking at doing this..
I have spoken to the local college that specialise in horticulture/landscape industries and they are putting together a short list of students that they recommend.
i definitely think thats the way forward rather than just advertising.. as you will get somebody already interested and someone who the college feel has a lotos potential.
A couple of recent threads that may serve as useful background reading - like a few we have been there...:-)
http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/lazy-shirkers-no-...
http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/why-don-t-young-p...
http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/forum/topics/workplace-experience
We have an apprentice supplied via our local horticultural college, and it's working out very well at the moment. You have to pay them £2.86 an hour to start with. After a few months you get a government grant of about £1500 paid to you in two separate payments.
The good thing about having an apprentice is that you train them the way you work so in a few years time they are the ideal people to become your your team leaders / supervisors.
We are now on our second guy who is attending Merrist Wood and I've taken a different approach with our apprentices - we've paid above NMW for their age and not the apprenticeship amount (ie £5.50 p/hr vs £2.68)
I believe the apprenticeship rate is a slap in the face and I wanted to motivate them and have them looking forward to getting out of bed and working with us. They do the same physical hard work as us, so they need to be rewarded. The current guy will also join us on our Xmas bash.
Thank you all for your advise. i was going to contact the local collages (Merriest Wood, Sparshot) but would depend to the distance they live from me / my area. I was thinking of paying a higher wage depending on the work either that or offer a simple incentive bonus for them, basically something to keep them interested - all looks positive out there anyway so good luck all for 2014. Ben