Future Gardeners - impact
We have been running Future Gardeners - our transformative horticultural training programme - for eight years. This year (2024) four courses took place: courses 17, 18 and 19 in Waterloo and an additional course in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Our central Future Gardeners courses ran from our community centre Living Space with City and Guilds qualifications completed at Walworth Garden in Kennington.
Future Gardeners 17
14 people participated and 14 graduated. 79% of our graduates are now in horticultural work, education or volunteering.
Future Gardeners 18
14 people participated and 13 graduated. 79% of our graduates are now in horticultural work, education or volunteering.
Future Gardeners 19
15 people participated and 13 graduated. 80% of our graduates are now in horticultural work, education or volunteering.
What is Future Gardeners?
Future Gardeners is a transformative horticultural training programme for individuals facing long-term unemployment or other significant challenges in life. It’s designed to create pathways to training and employment opportunities in the horticultural industry through hands on experience, classroom-based learning and connections with industry experts.
Bankside Open Spaces Trust developed Future Gardeners alongside leading horticultural organisations such as The Worshipful Company of Gardeners, The Royal Parks Guild, and Walworth Garden. We run Future Gardeners in collaboration with a network of industry partners to ensure its ongoing success.
While Future Gardeners is open to a diverse range of people, it prioritises those with the greatest need, including:
Individuals not in education or training
The long-term unemployed
Those unable to afford other horticultural courses
People with learning needs or disabilities
By removing barriers to education and employment, Future Gardeners creates a supportive environment where participants can grow, thrive, and build a brighter future.
Why is Future Gardeners important?
The shortage of skilled professionals entering the horticultural industry in the UK has now been deemed ‘critical’ by the Royal Horticultural Society.
This is due to three factors:
1) the current ageing workforce
2) lack of apprentices going into the industry at entry level
3) and difficulties in recruiting for skilled vacancies.
(The 2019 Horticulture Sector Skills Survey undertaken by Pye Tait for the Ornamental Horticultural Roundtable Group (OHRG)).
With the OHRG predicting that the skills shortage will seriously restrict future business growth and with horticulture contributing over £9 billion to the UK economy each year, there are sound economic reasons to address this skills shortage.
Unemployment can affect mental health, confidence and self-esteem as well as lead to debt and poor physical health. A 2017 study by the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies showed that if you are young and unemployed, you are more than twice as likely to have mental health needs.
At the same time, there is a need for horticulture to be presented as an accessible (no barriers to entry), fulfilling career choice to many who may not have thought of it as being an option for them, especially those who have limited or no qualifications and who would prefer to have a career outdoors.
Future Gardeners is designed to give people the skills and knowledge they need to explore the horticultural industry with confidence.