Conkering a new career

For garden designer Penny Rushby-Smith family circumstances followed by the recession were the catalyst for a change in career. Through an innovative scheme called Forest Schools she’s been able to marry her love of the outdoors and working with children whilst also being awarded as the Women and Work Landscaping Learner of the Year.Since 2007 Lantra’s Women and Work programme has helped 2423 women to improve their lives, careers and businesses. To celebrate the end of the programme’s third phase and women like Penny who have flourished, Lantra has organised the first ever Women and Work Awards to be held at Nailcote Hall, Warwickshire, on 10 March 2010.“Women and Work funding came along at just the right time for me,” says Penny, “with the recession biting at my garden design business and a desire to broaden my skills I came across the Forest Schools scheme.”Forest Schools is an innovative educational approach to play and learning through positive outdoor experiences.It involves taking a class or group of children to visit the same local woodlands on a regular basis and through play to learn about the natural environment, how to handle risks and most importantly to use their own initiative to solve problems and co-operate with others.“Forest Schools opened up a whole new way of working for me in particular the opportunity to work in a team,” she said.“As a garden designer I would often be in a supervisory role of trades people or working through a clients’ brief with them but this isn’t the same as a really supportive and creative collaborative working relationship.”Because of her ability to adapt to challenging times and develop a new business through the skills she has accessed Penny has been shortlisted for the Women and Work Landscaping Learner of the Year Award. Penny will be presented with her prize by Labour Peer and Women and Work Champion, Baroness Prosser OBE, at the luncheon.Penny, who lives in Hackney, London with husband Tim, became increasingly interested in working with children since having their daughter Rosalie five years ago.“I went through two life-changing experiences in 2005,” says 36-year-old Penny. “Firstly Tim, who had trained as a tree surgeon fell from a tree while we were working on a clients’ garden.“He broke his back in the fall and was subsequently in hospital for almost four months. I put our gardening business on hold, took early maternity leave and visited him every day in hospital. Rosalie was born a week after Tim was discharged from hospital and there I was with Tim in a wheelchair, our baby and a 14-month wait to get back to our London flat which needed adapting.”While Tim carved out a new career in writing and caring for Rosalie Penny continued with the garden design and maintenance business while searching for something new, which turned out to be Forest Schools.The £450 training grant provided by the Women and Work programme meant Penny could afford to go on a course with Sheffield-based Archimedes Training last October.“I have absolutely no doubt I did the right thing. I’ve got some more practical work to do to achieve my Forest Schools Level 3 Practitioners’ Award and I need to develop a business plan but I know I am definitely on the right track.“I’m at the beginning of a new career path that will not only be better in terms of potential earnings but I feel sure it will give me greater job satisfaction.”Women and Work Programme Manager, Lyndsay Bird, said: “We are pleased to hold the first ever Women and Work Awards and celebrate the achievements of women, such as Penny, who have benefited from the funding available. Penny is a great example of how life changing events and the recession don’t mean the end of your career or business. Investing in skills using Women and Work funding can help women to find a new direction and these Awards recognise these achievements.”Penny will join six other finalists who have benefited from Women and Work in male dominated environmental and land-based industries, and will be in the running for the Outstanding Women and Work Learner of the Year Award, which will be announced at the Awards luncheon.For more information about Women and Work or to register your interest visit www.lantra.co.uk/WomenandWork or call 0845 707 8007.

"Plus it doesn't matter if we all know plants are better value. I'd make the point of this to the customer but if they want trough grown at the extra cost that's their choice I'd just do it"

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