Horticulture Careers - from STEM to Art!
This article is one I wrote for Career Matters, the CDI’s quarterly magazine aimed at careers staff. I know you find it useful! Horticulture careers are wide and varied.
The job opportunities in horticulture are often seen as either being a gardener pulling weeds or working in the local garden centre selling plants and seeds. The Chartered Institute of Horticulture takes a rather different view to this, suggesting that this assumption ‘is to take a very limited view of a broad and important industry which is vital to the health and quality of life’. The Ness Botanical Gardens website builds on this; ‘horticulture is the Art, Science, Technology and Business of intensive plant cultivation for human use….incorporating… food and non-food crops… It also includes related services in plant conservation, landscape restoration, landscape and garden design/ construction/maintenance, horticultural therapy, and much more.’
Horticulture has therefore an extremely varied jigsaw of potential careers which can be of interest to those with talents ranging from art to science, from educational backgrounds ranging from GCSEs to PhDs, and from those who want to work for themselves to working for international companies.
The Chartered Institute of Horticulture estimates the output of the horticulture industry to be £9 billion per annum, providing 37,000 jobs, with many in rural locations. Roughly 85% of the sector is made up of SMEs.
There are several different types of horticulture to get into!
Production horticulture (which covers producing vegetables, fruit, plants and flowers on a larger scale). In England there are 7,745 production horticulture businesses, over 89% of these companies employ 10 staff or fewer. 56% of the workforce is self-employed (Lantra). Whilst there is an overlap between agriculture and production horticulture for instance around skills needed, interest in growing crops and use of technology, there are also distinct differences too for instance in the type of crops grown and sometimes the method used, e.g. soil based or hydroponically (i.e. water-based).
The Horticultural Trades Association reckons there are 2300 garden centres and nurseries nationally. These tend to employ between 30 and 200 staff each. (Lantra Research Factsheet)
Amenity horticulture (which covers landscaping, sports turf, private and botanic gardens, public parks and green spaces) has around 16,650 contractor companies, 81% of businesses employ fewer than 10 people (Lantra website).
The plant breeding industry has several working research institutes (GrowCareers). Both the Royal Horticulture Society and Grow Careers Initiative have identified:
Amenity manager • Biodiversity officer • Cemetery keeper • Chemist • Consultant • Crop physiologist • Florist • Garden photographer/ illustrator • Garden writer/ journalist • Garden/landscape designer • Gardener • Greenkeeper • Horticultural scientist • Horticultural therapist • Interior landscaper • Landscape contractor • Lecturer • Librarian, e.g. for Kew • Marketing • Park ranger • Plant breeder/ geneticist • Plant centre manager• Propagation scientist • Soil scientist • Sports turf manager
STEM
With the continued focus on STEM careers, horticulture is most definitely an industry full of opportunities. But it is not just science; technology has a ‘growing’ significance too, in particular with commercial horticulture. For those students who are not as interested in STEM careers, there are plenty of options as can be seen by the list above.
As highlighted already, many of these roles will be available in small and medium companies. With the increased awareness of self-employment and entrepreneurship, horticulture offers a great opportunity to run one’s own company, and not just as a gardener. And of course all other horticulture businesses, including retailers like Wyevale and Dobbies, need staff with both horticulture and commercial awareness if self-employment does not appeal.
International opportunities
People with recognised horticulture qualifications, knowledge and skills are needed internationally. There are several international companies looking for graduates, including Grodan (consultancy and technical provision), the Desert Group (retail, design, soil and plant science) and G’s Fresh (production horticulture). Organisations like the Animal and Plant Health Authority (the executive agency of DEFRA) has several plant and soil scientists working for it. And of course there are the ‘unexpected’ places employing gardeners, such as hospital trusts or the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, who employ about 900 gardeners in 154 countries!
Shortage area
There is definitely a need for more entrants to the industry, so much so that several organisations like Kew, Institute of Horticulture, RHS, National Trust, and the various other Botanic Gardens have set up the Grow Careers initiative to promote opportunities. The range of careers is well laid out with more information, including what different jobs involve, qualifications needed, salary and links for further information.
What route would suit you best?
Routes into the industry
Routes into horticulture careers are numerous, depending upon what a student would like to do eventually. The obvious ones include apprenticeships and full-time FE college courses at local land-based colleges. Apprenticeships are available in most of the career areas, including soft/hard landscaping, garden maintenance, sports turf (the hallowed turf of Twickenham needs looking after!), public spaces and parks, glasshouses, including an historical glasshouse apprenticeship at Kew, and botanic gardens.
The full-time FE courses will develop much the same knowledge and skills, but whilst studying more full-time. Higher education courses are available too, from plant biology and horticulture to landscape design. Doing a slightly different named UCAS search for plant science produces 32 HEIs with related courses. Following on from these undergraduate courses are a range of more specialist post graduate opportunities, for instance in Post-Harvest Production, Horticulture Therapy, Landscape Design, Botany and Plant Science. As with other occupational areas, getting relevant experience helps students not only decide which areas of horticulture they are most keen on but gives employers a chance to ‘trial’ potential employees.
Training schemes
There are other, perhaps slightly less well-known, training options including Royal Horticultural Society and Kew which both have a range of courses. These are both aimed at developing practical skills and more in depth botany/plant science academic knowledge. Apprenticeships are also offered with both these and through the Historic and Botanic Garden Trainee Programmes. These apprenticeships can be undertaken at a range of botanic gardens and well known gardens like Chatsworth, Kensington Palace and Audley End. Kew’s courses go up to MSc level.
There are also financial grants and bursaries available for those studying horticulture. These can be used for general support as well as ‘projects, exchanges and travel’ – there is a list available here. There is a wide range available, from the very specific, e.g. to support the work of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Sibbald Trust) to the wider ‘development of the ornamental horticultural industry’ (The David Colegrave Foundation). This support would be on top of any apprenticeship salary or general student support, and would be excellent on a student’s CV.
At the start of this article I mentioned the assumption that horticulture ‘just’ meant gardeners and retail assistants. Whilst there are plenty of very interesting gardening and retail opportunities, the reality is more about seeing how diversified the opportunities are that a student could get a horticultural related career in – from STEM or design-related to people-related in horticulture therapy and teaching.
Further websites to look at
HBGTP www.hbgtp.org.uk www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/careershorticulture www.kew.org/learn Horticulture
Delacy Executive - recruitment agency
Andersplus www.growcareers.info/ www.lantra.co.uk/ www.horticulture.org.uk/page.php?pageid=548
