)

Horticultures Routes to Employment

About the course

The Horticulture Routes to Employment is designed to meet the needs of those who already hold a horticultural qualification or have experience of working in the horticulture industry. A series of certificates to practice (‘tickets’) are included alongside opportunities to practice horticultural skills to achieve and maintain the standards expected in employment.

Year 1

Year 1

City and Guilds Level 2 Award in the Safe Use of Pedestrian Controlled Mowers

City and Guilds Level 2 Award in the Safe Use of Ride On Mowers

City and Guilds Level 2 Award in the Safe Use of Brush Cutters and Trimmers

City and Guilds Level 2 Award in the Safe Use of a Manually Fed Wood Chipper

City and Guilds Level 2 Award in the Safe use of Pesticides (PA1)

City and Guilds Level 2 Award in the Safe Application of Pesticides using Pedestrian Hand Held Equipment

Work Experience / Enrichment

Entry requirements & additional information

Entry requirements

Level 2 Horticulture or experience of working in industry.

Learning and assessment

Students gain practical skills and experience in the Walled Garden at Croxteth Park. Each of the course components includes a separate practical assessment.

Progression

Level 3 Horticulture or apprenticeships.

Careers

Employment (including apprenticeships) in horticulture, grounds maintenance, sportsturf and landscaping.

Special requirements

Students require steel toe capped boots / wellingtons and sensible outdoor clothing (including waterproofs). Approx £150

The Horticulture Routes to Employment programme is free for students aged 16 – 18 and Liverpool City Region residents aged 19 or over*.

*Subject to eligibility

Costs that are optional for the course:

Some students prefer to use their own secateurs.

Work experience

Students gain valuable work experience in the Walled Garden at Croxteth or may participate in an external work placement.

Horticulture

Horticulture is a rapidly growing area of the economy thanks to a strong public interest in gardening, plants, sustainability and food security. According to the Royal Horticultural Society, the horticulture industry is the largest employer in the UK, supplying 18 million gardeners.

The number of garden centres continues to increase and the public demand for attractive horticultural landscapes remains strong. This means that plant growers, suppliers and managers are constantly looking for ways to improve their businesses.

Our Gold Medal winning garden at Southport Flower Show

Show Garden Success

Work experience doesn’t get much better than here at Myerscough. Our learners have helped build award-winning gardens across the country - from a Gold-Medal entry at Chelsea Flower Show to Gold and Silver Medals at Southport Flower Show! They’ve also been involved with garden builds for the BBC DIY SOS project in Blackpool and show gardens at the RHS Tatton Flower Show and Chorley Flower Show.

PlantWorld

Myerscough’s award-winning gardens are laid out across much of the western edge of the Myerscough campus. As part of our garden kingdom, horticulture students are spoilt for choice in our Plant World display glasshouses! There are bananas growing in the Tropical Zone, coffee plants and pineapples in the Edible Zone, a Mediterranean atmosphere in the Temperate Zone as well as beautiful specimen plants in the Flowering and Foliage Zones.

Myerscough College - Horticulture Glasshouses

Superb Facilities

Our horticulture students have access to some of the best facilities available. There are brand new commercial glasshouses, an extensive plant collection, fully-equipped landscape and construction workshops, a new Sportsturf education facility, a CAD suite and drawing studio and dedicated garden plots for project work.

Scholarship Programme

Every year there’s the chance for students to apply for funding to undertake overseas trips as part of their studies thanks to travel scholarships. The annual fund, from the Lancaster and Morecambe Agriculture & Horticulture Society Scholarship programme, pays significant bursaries to encourage young horticulturalists to study or explore business ideas abroad. This year, Bronwyn Jones, 19, went to Singapore to be involved as a volunteer on the ‘Gardens by the Bay’ project looking at increasing public accessibility to gardens and using innovation and technology in creating a city in the garden.

Latest news, Horticulture

Myerscough College Fellow - Christine Walkden

Christine Walkden: Honorary Fellow

"My passion for gardening was nurtured at Myerscough College and I've been getting my hands dirty ever since." Celebrity plantswoman and horticulturalist Christine was awarded an honorary fellowship and regularly works with the College and our Horticultural department.