The new apprenticeship will provide the technical and supervisory skills for those who are maintaining and installing parks, gardens and commercial landscapes and is the latest in a suite of new standards delivering a boost to those hoping to develop a career in arboriculture, forestry horticulture and landscape industries.
The supervisor apprenticeship joins the arborist, forest operative and horticulture/landscape operative apprenticeship standards that were approved in the summer of 2017. Designed by employers working together as the trailblazer group, they contain the skills, knowledge and behaviours that will provide the industry with highly-qualified workers.
The apprenticeships contain the key practical skills required for workers in their respective roles – from tree climbing, planting and felling to soil cultivation and hard landscaping. Successful candidates must pass rigorous end tests that demonstrates they have not only reached the standards required by employers, but also that they can put their skills and knowledge together and do the job effectively.
In their first year of being available for delivery, 127 candidates registered on the arborist and 507 on the horticulture/landscape operative apprenticeships. The trailblazer group will work with training and assessment providers to make these programmes successful.
The employers in the trailblazer group are now discussing future applications for further apprenticeship standards, based on the findings of a recent survey of relevant businesses.
Groups of employers (trailblazers) have been leading the way in carrying out the changes to apprenticeships in England. The arboriculture, forestry, horticulture and landscape industries became involved in 2014 and gained government approval to develop apprenticeships in four occupations at the end of that year.
The lead employer for the trailblazer is now Ground Control, who are also heading up the horticulture/landscape working group. The Duchy of Cornwall Chair the forestry sub group and Bartlett Tree Experts Chair arboriculture.
The trailblazer partnership is employer-led, but also has been well supported by training providers, assessment organisations and trade bodies, including The British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI).
