Landscape or Horticulture Supervisor

On a landscape or horticulture supervisor apprenticeship course, you’ll help plan and maintain extensive gardens, parks, and other green spaces.

A horticulture and landscape supervisor oversees public parks, green spaces, historic gardens, private gardens and estates, and production nurseries and retail stores.

Similar to the operative apprenticeship, you will specialise in soft-landscape or hard-landscape.

The horticultural supervisor apprenticeship focuses on horticulture, specifically plant propagation and development.

The installation of features and buildings, the use of landscape materials, and site management support are all aspects of landscape construction.

What you’ll learn

On a landscape or horticulture supervisor apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

• Oversee a project’s processes, planning, and requirements and proactively address practical problems by making decisions based on experience and judgment. Be flexible to change priorities, settings, situations, and technology.
• Communicate with others, including consumers, the general public, and colleagues.
• Manage the client’s expectations and requirements; customers may be members of the general public, businesses, or private residences.
• Encourage effective collaboration, and use efficient time management, resource management, and teamwork.
• Perform team management and motivation, task prioritisation, problem-solving, and resource distribution within a team.
• Create and maintain a strong safety culture within a team, understand and implement safe work processes, and comply with any environmental legislation. 
• Water, feed, prune and identify plant deficiencies. Troubleshoot problems and implement corrective management strategies.
• Carry out selection assessments capability to educate employees in appropriate technique and tool use—management of tools, equipment, and machinery on-site.
• Supervise site clearance processes and methods, pruning, and vegetation management equipment and machinery. Implement weed control and pruning methods for various trees, shrubs, and perennials.
• Develop and improve soils via the use of mechanical and manual methods. Analyse soil-related problems and implement corrective action strategies.
• Recognise and respond to plant health concerns.
• Supervise the maintenance of buildings essential to the site’s economic activities and context, such as those with historical or environmental designations.
• Meet a deadline, and create a work plan.
• Determine the most critical threats and dangers to tree health.

Entry requirements

You’ll usually need:

• GCSEs or equivalent qualifications or relevant experience for an advanced apprenticeship

Assessment methods

The End Point Assessment comprises three sections: 

• A thorough practical test consisting of a range of practical activities
• Professional discussion 
• Online knowledge evaluation that fulfils the knowledge requirements of the standard

The following credentials will be required before taking the end point test.

• Emergency first aid: Level 3 certification in workplace emergency first aid.
• Pesticides: Level 2 Award in Pesticide Safe Use OR Level 2 Principles of Pesticide Safe Handling and Application Guidance

Duration and level

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 3 Horticulture or Landscape Supervisor Apprenticeship standard can be found here.

Apprenticeship end point assessment

For more information about the End Point Assessment Process, please read the Institute of Apprenticeships’ information page.