Being a well-trained professional gardener enhances both your career prospects and job satisfaction. It enables you to apply for better roles and receive better remuneration. It also improves the reputation of the profession as a whole and through this the standing of the industry.
Training can take the form of academic qualifications, like the courses offered by the Royal Horticultural Society; practical skills training, such as pesticide application; or more specialist options like management training, permaculture courses or garden history study.
If you are unsure what sort of training you need, you may find our Training as a Gardener document helpful. Alternatively you can read job specifications for roles that you aspire to, or read the reports of successful Award recipients below.
To discover other horticultural training opportunities, some of which offer a salary while training, try the following:
- For information about Historic and Botanic Gardens Training Programme see Trainee Programmes
- For information about land based training see National Land Based College
- For details of the Professional Gardeners Guild traineeship.
- For information about part-time training in gardens and one-day training sessions see WFGA (Work and Retrain As a Gardener Scheme)
- Work-based training at the RHS.
- The Kew Diploma.
- A large number of options are listed here.
Find out about making an application to the PGT.
Award Reports – use the links below to read reports from previous award recipients
Rachel Pratt – RHS Level 2 Helen Jones – RHS Level 2
Errol Fernandes – RHS Level 3 Sue Appleton – RHS Level 3
Fiona Dalton – PA1 and PA6 Theodore Carpenter – Tractor Driving
Adam Jacob – Aerial Tree Pruning Lynne Maclagan – English Landscape Gardens
(credit for Adams photo goes to Mike Newman Photography)
Bertie Swainston – first year RHS MHort Joanne Parr – first year RHS MHort
