Careers in Horticulture
West Sussex and the UK Horticulture IndustryWest Sussex is one of the most important areas of commercial horticulture in the UK and is therefore an place to start a career in horticulture with a large range of employers offering a broad spectrum of career opportunities.
The UK horticulture industry has a total turnover in excess of £9 billon pounds and is generally divided into three main sectors:
Commercial Horticulture:
- The production of plants and/or food crops for sale.
- Amenity or Landscape Horticulture: The development and maintenance of landscapes including parks and gardens.
- Retail Horticulture: Selling plants to the public in shops and garden centres.It is not unusual for people to move between sectors and for this reason many colleges offer introductory courses in ‘general horticulture’, however in order to develop a career in a particular sector you will need to move onto more specialist training.
Members of the West Sussex Growers Association form part of the commercial horticulture sector, the careers on offer cover a wide range of skills including engineering, entomology, marketing, food safety, quality assurance and management as well as the skills immediately associated with growing the crop.
Of course horticulture is not just a UK based industry but an international one. You may be growing different crops under very different environments but its still horticulture. So whilst your horticultural career may well start in West Sussex, the world can really be you oyster if you wish.
How do you start a career in Commercial Horticulture?
There are several pathways to starting a career in horticulture, here are a few ideas that can get you going.
1. Getting some initial experience.
If you are still at school you may be able to work on a nursery as part of a work experience programme. The West Sussex Growers Association is always happy to assist Schools and Careers Officers in finding suitable placements.
2. Start with a seasonal job.
Full-time permanent nursery jobs, that are suitable for beginners, are rarely advertised. T
his is because a large number of people initially start their employment on a temporary or seasonal basis. If you decide to take a seasonal job and are serious about considering a career in the industry you should make this clear to your employer. Some employers use agencies to employ seasonal labour; if you are employed via an agency you can still make it clear to the businesses you are sent to that you want a permanent job – employers and agencies have arrangements to make it possible to be transferred when a permanent job becomes available.
Horticulture is an industry where it is still very possible to start at the bottom of the management spine and work your way to the top. Many prominent nursery managers in West Sussex started their careers as seasonal employees!
3. Apprenticeships and NVQs
If you are aged between 16-24 you can join the industry and enjoy progression through NVQs to level 3 through an Apprenticeship scheme. These are operated by ChichesterCollege and they can assist you in finding a suitable employer.
There are a variety of vocational training systems in use on WSGA nurseries, some are linked to NVQs – but these are not the only qualifications recognised by the industry. There are also special training and certification schemes for skills such as pesticide application and forklift driving.
Pest and disease identification is a specialist skill essential to all nurseries
4. Develop some technical expertise
If you have the chance to go to university there are several in the UK offering Horticulture or related subjects. The WSGA has particularly good links with Reading University and horticulture students from there regularly visit members’ nurseries. A relevant science degree can help you get a job as a technical manager either based on a nursery or with a specialist supplier or a retail customer.
Specialist technical skills can be obtained by studying a degree in horticulture
There is currently a serious shortage of skilled staff in all sectors of horticulture and no shortage of jobs for suitably qualified individuals. Because of the limited number of applicants to job advertisements, the industry is increasingly using recruitment agencies. A lot of more senior roles can also be recruitment via networking and word of mouth. Please also check the ‘Jobs’ section of this website. The following specialist recruitment agencies operate with the commercial and amenity sectors. It is worth looking at their websites to see what type of positions are currently available;
- MorePeople
- Grade One
- Horticruitment
- Horticulture Week is now the major industry weekly trade magazine and although amenity based it carries must of the adverstised industry jobs. Again its worth checking Horticulture Weeks jobs pages to gain an idea of the range of jobs currently available.
If you are serious about starting a horticultural career and would like to meet infomally with one of our members to talk through the opoportunities that exist within West Sussex horticulture please contact the WSGA and we will be happy to help.
Useful Links
- Chichester College – For details of full and part time vocational training.
- GrowTrain – For specialist training in commercial horticulture.
- Lantra – The Sector Skills Council for the Environmental and Land-based Sector.
- Reading University – For details of BSc and MSc Degree Programmes
