We are working closely with a School in West Lothian, where a lot of our workforce comes from.   They are offering a horticultural module and we are advising them on the industry requirements and expectations to ensure the students who attend the module get the most valuable experience possible.

We also have structured our teams in a way that promotes new, unskilled workers to join us and develop their skills within the company.   We have a team leader, second in command and an unskilled operative (ideally apprentice) therefore the unskilled operative gets valuable experience from their team members and develops their skills.  If the operative is not interested in apprenticeships, we have a training provider that can provide onsite training and assessments which results in the operative receiving an industry recognised qualification.

During last summer, we recruited an intern on a fully paid basis to assist their development in the industry.   They gained a valuable insight across multiple areas of the business to help them understand that business is a commercial undertaking, and everything has a cost and should be done effectively with the best value for the client.   They left to continue their studies and has asked to come back next summer as they said they gained more knowledge and experience.   Since then, we have employed an undergraduate student to join our team on a permanent basis.

We felt this was an excellent opportunity for the candidate to develop his understanding of the role while still undertaking their final year dissertation to hopefully complement each other.   The new employee has been with us for a few months and has settled in well, with a positive increase in his course work scores now he has a different outlook on the subject.