A £200,000 ‘helping hand’ will give young people in Yorkshire the chance to get horticultural training and increase their chance of finding a job.
The Peter Sowerby Foundation has donated £200,000 to the RHS to deliver the three-year programme.
Traditionally, horticultural learning takes place at land-based colleges but this pilot has been designed to create opportunities for community-based learning across the county.
The first phase of the programme will focus on young people aged 16 to 25 – it will later widen to offer opportunities to people of all ages.
The scheme aims to equip young people with practical skills, to create opportunities for learning linked to future employment, and to address the horticultural skills gap in the sector.
It is hoped that by the end of the three years there will be nine permanent learning centres, and 650 training opportunities will have been created.
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