Horticultural Studentships
The National Botanic Garden of Wales offers a maximum of four horticultural studentships a year, aimed at horticulture students who require a period of work experience as part of their course. Recently qualified horticulture students who feel they will benefit from additional work experience are also considered.
We offer all our students a structured programme, rotating each one around the various areas of the gardens. Students generally spend three months working alongside our permanent staff in the ornamental areas of the gardens (the herbaceous borders, bog garden and parkland areas), three months in the Great Glasshouse (devoted to an internationally important collection of Mediterranean climate plants), three months in the nursery glasshouses, tropical display house and outside nursery areas (learning propagation techniques and the maintenance of plants in containers), and three months in our Walled Garden (with its displays of flowering plant evolution, and of traditional vegetable production). Over the year, we expect them to gain experience of a very wide range of horticultural techniques and skills, from the basics of weeding, grass maintenance and hedge trimming to the more advanced skills of propagating from cuttings and seed, planting and pruning and so on.
As a relatively new garden, we feel we offer an exciting and challenging experience. Students who spend a year with us have a chance to get involved in the development of new areas, as well as the maintenance of existing ones. As a garden with a small staff (in terms of the acreage we are expected to maintain) our students get to take on more responsibility and to be more involved in decision-making than they would be in many other gardens.
As well as the work experience we offer, we encourage our students to apply for and attend courses and garden visits organised by bodies such as PlantNetwork and the Professional Gardeners Guild; several of our past students have profited from the proximity of our local agricultural/horticultural college to undertake certificated training in eg. spraying and chainsaw techniques. In addition, we ask them to organise a weekly plant ident for each other (tested by one of our own staff), and many choose to work on a specific project during their time with us.
Accommodation for our students is provided in a house on the margins of the estate, from which they can walk to work in the mornings. Payment is set at minimum wage, with accommodation including bills (other than phone use) provided as part of the salary.
Holiday entitlement is 25 days per annum (pro rata) plus national holidays, and students are expected to join the weekend rota (about one weekend in seven) for which time off in lieu is given. The hours are 8am to 4pm with a 30 minute unpaid lunch break.
Applications (by CV and with covering letter) are accepted at any time throughout the year; interviews for the posts are generally held in April/May of each year. Studentships run from September to September; although not certificated, past students have gone on to work for RBG Edinburgh, to follow the Kew Diploma course, and to join the RHS traineeship scheme, so the experience is clearly felt to be worthwhile by these institutions.
For further information or to make an application, please contact:
Jessica Gould
Head of Horticulture (Indoors)
National Botanic Garden of Wales
email: jgould@gardenofwales.org.uk, direct telephone number 01558 667122
