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Hi
Agree with every word in the article
In my experience training young people primarily
I have found that young people do not have a lot of knowledge regarding Garden jobs unless family have worked in the industry, even then the low pay and working in all weather puts them off...
I have to select my words carefully here not trying to offend anyone
I get the general feeling that education sytems see gardening as a last resort for individuals who may not be academically minded especially where the pupil/student is nearing the end of their education. Where I stay there are a number of schools delivering vocational training/certification or at least provide growing space to encourage pupils to enjoy growing their own vegatable/flowers. (Primary and High schools) which may alter perception.
For many people who do enter "Horticulture" they are unaware that the course involve maths, calculations, Language (Latin), science (chemistry, physics, biology) and god forbid studying is required to gain the certification.
Yes there are the exception to the rule but they are few and far between.,, in my experience
I remember thinking on the day I got a Job creation placement (remember them) "That it (job) would do until I got something better" I still work with the same Organisation all be it with a different remit now.The reason I moved from the tools "I did not want to become like all the other guys in van moaning about this and that" it was not their 1st career choise either. I do not think peoples perceptions have changed.
In my current remit (Local authority) we have employed young people on Modern apprenticeships (level 2 one year contract with the potential to move onto a three year Level 3 qualification after competitive interview) of those employed all the individuals that had academic qualifications left in the first year to other trades or worse still the ones that had drive and determination redeployed to Prison service, Police, or railways, after completing apprenticeship..
Yes we have success stories, but lack of staff retiring or moving on has created a bottle neck for these young individuals to make their mark.
Why should they? Look at gardening with outside eyes...
Our flagship gardening programme shows gardening to be an activity solely for older people, for whom everything always grows well each year, and gives the impression that gardening expertise is the realm of a few key people. Everything's so terribly nice, and all set to acoustic guitar music.
Our gardening media is generally split: young people are doing the James Wong 'thing' and growing their own food because it's 'organic' and 'healthy'; the trendy gardening is GYO. On the other side of the divide there are the ornamental gardeners; stuffy, out of touch, unsustainable, ignorant of wildlife etc. It's wrong, but that's how ornamental gardening is portrayed.
When young people are shown in the media how are they portrayed? "Oh look, here's a young person at Chelsea"! Young people actually doing anything horticultural are framed up to look like a novelty act. Nobody invites young people to do anything in horticultural media because they are good at what they do, they're invited because they have a novelty value.
I suppose that young people with expertise and skill are a bit of a novelty, but that's due to the nature of horticulture. With the extraordinary diversity of expertise that falls under the title of horticulture it takes more time to build up a good knowledge base compared with many other careers where you can become proficient at your job fairly quickly. In horticulture it's more a case that the more you know the more you realise you don't know, and that can be very off-putting to anyone who wants to excel in their career.
The future of horticulture as a career will come from us and not from government or anyone else 'in power'. We have to demonstrate through our work that this is a viable career, that it is accessible, and that it is worth doing. Horticulture is not a second rate profession or something that only older people can enjoy.
I guess im young i started when i was 22 now im 24? did a labouring job with a tree surgeon at 18 to. My opinion is bloody wages i think people take the piss because of someones age where as age can be good as they may have better stamina. So why would a young person want to work for £8.50 an hour in the heat, wind , rain , cold when you look at retail pays £7.50 an hour minimum flexible hours and easier work.
We need to pay young people fairer wages to be honest it all comes down to money.
god I wish i got those wages as a gardener, the average it goes up to where I am (wirral/cheshire) is around £6.50-7.20. I have a mate who works in a local pub earning £8.50 + tips so I can fully understand why younger people don't want to even look at gardening.
Gardening according to nearly all my mates just involves pushing a lawn mower around and blowing away and traces you were there after. when you start talking about how many leaves a single grass bald can have and why its better to cut regular compared to fortnightly etc, how to work out how much feed you use per m2, it has honestly shocked a few people that there is so much to it and I feel that the other side of the face of gardening is never portrayed hence why nobody ever picks it as a career
Sobering : This artical : What price a good gardener?
Also from The Telegraph regarding UK gardening wages/salaries - it's 4 years old, but suspect given the economic climate it has not changed much - maybe even reduced ?
I think the bottom line is that a lot of young people are lazy and also becoming more and more incapable of doing things. I see so many young people who seem incapable of putting down their smartphone for more than a few minutes and actually doing something that involves effort and being away from their ipad/ipod,/phone/facebook.
http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2015/02/23/quit-your-job-become-a-...
http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2015/02/23/quit-your-job-become-a-...
What's your view on the Salary in that advert ?
One of the industry's biggest problems is one of defined identity (or lack of it).
It's pretty clear to me that some people (or groups) would regard themselves as different to other individuals (or groups)...although both might be considered as gardeners.
A gardener working in an RHS garden, for example, wouldn't consider themselves to be the same as a self-employed gardener working on a gardening round.
Similarly, someone who does planting and turfing, for example, might view themselves as a landscaper but someone who only lays paving or builds garden walls, might disagree with the handle given to others.
I still think there is a strong perception - and keen to be maintained by certain areas of the landscape/horticulture trade - that a self-employed gardener is less qualified and is diminished in some way to a gardener working within the grounds of a county home.
We all have to be realistic and agree that wages and conditions across the industry are always likely to lag behind sectors such as software, or engineering. This is despite the fact that outdoor recreation has become a much bigger part of people's everyday lives. unlike, say, 20 years ago.
I haver to admit that I was one of the out of a car starters who only went into gardening initially (then landscaping a bit later) because I didn't feel I had much choice. In my case I'd suffered two accidents, lost my job on a golf course because I could not carry out the required duties properly (like walking;) so I started a gardening round. I was nineteen.
I went on to establish a reasonably successful business but I often got the feeling that others viewed my job/career/business with the same feelings as I did.
When I click through to the Telegraph article and see the picture of Sarah Price with her scarf wrapped around her neck, I don't see it as the same career path that I or many of my peers have travelled or are currently travelling.