I recently celebrated 50 years of working in our diverse sports turf and horticulture industry - having begun my career as a parks apprentice with Birmingham City Council on the 14th August 1972.

There were around twenty-five of us enlisted on the prestigious City &Guilds scheme which involved attending Kings Heath Horticultural college one day a week for five years.

I recall being excited at the opportunity to be taught by some experienced and talented lecturers and more importantly working along seasonalised horticulturalists and practitioners during my working week. 

My first two years were spent working at Kings Heath Park where, during the week, we were assigned jobs in the park. Menial to begin with, but as we became more experienced, we were given increasingly interesting jobs such as plant propagation and mowing bowling greens.

One day a week we all would attend the college and were educated to become good horticulturalists, learning plant ident, botany, biology, machinery and sports turf.

Kings Heath Park

Working at Kings Heath Park enabled me to meet up with other year groups who also attended the college. Amongst those apprentices were a number of students who went on to hold some prestigious jobs in our industry. For example:

• Robert Standon, parks manger for Bath City Council
• Michael Hinton, parks manager, Birmingham City Council
• Phil Randle, Aston University
• Harry Pool who just retired after fifty years working for Birmingham City Council
• James Mead who also has just retired as head grounds manager at Rugby School
• Andy Richards, current estates manager at Haileybury School
• Dave Collins, current Head greenkeeper Lickey Hills GC 

Plant A Tree In 73 at Kings Heath park 

I also looked after the ATV Television Garden at Kings Heath Park. The programme, Gardening Today, was originally devised to show viewers how to design and maintain their gardens. The first presenters were Bob Price and Cyril Fletcher. Myself and Phil Randle were tasked with preparing and looking after the garden, ready for the celebs to present the show.  I also remember the national UK scheme, Plant A Tree In 73 , when we planted loads of trees in both Kings Heath and Cannon Hill parks - happy days!

The rest of my apprenticeship was seen working at Cannon Hill park, as a propagator, Cocksmoors Woods GC and the island sites team based in Billsley Depot.

This was a great apprenticeship that gave me a set of skills to take into the numerous jobs and career opportunities I have held since. 

Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham 

Recruitment woes

Most horticulturalists and sport turf professionals spend years attaining the necessary skill sets they require to do their jobs. And in my opinion they should be rewarded and respected better than they are.

I read constantly the problems our industry is facing with regards to recruitment and retaining experienced grounds professionals. 

I believe this is compounded by the poor wages and often poor working conditions turf professionals are expected to tolerate.

Both BIGGA and the GMA are trying to raise the profile of our industry and have for many years promoted recommended pay scales for professionals - however, in the main these do not appear to enforced.

A recent Turfcare blog What Skill Set Makes for a Top Groundsperson portrayed the necessary skills and competencies required for practicing grounds professionals and highlighted that pay and conditions need to improve to encourage the next generation of ground professionals to come into our industry. 

I have said this on plenty of occasions, we need a national campaign to go into all schools, both private and state, to demonstrate the opportunities young people will have in choosing a career in this diverse industry. We need to demonstrate all the wider roles and career opportunities associated with working our sector.

We need a plethora of top industry professionals representing the different professional sports, local authorities, parks managers, manufacturers and leading career experts to promote our industry collectively through a proper national campaign.

We already have plenty of companies and individuals attempting to do this on a local scale, and there are plenty of apprenticeships being undertaken. However I believe it’s time we all came together nationally and had one big push to sell our industry on a grand scale. 

It would mean that we would need the likes of the major manufacturers along with the leading trade bodies and land-based colleges to come together and finally work as one to help deliver and promote this national campaign to recruit our next generation. 

Every school should be paid a visit by a team of industry professionals who give a presentation on their own careers and experiences, what opportunities they have enjoyed and what the industry can offer. 

Each school visit should have at least four experts give a presentation of what our industry can offer their career path - followed by a question and answer session. We must demonstrate the variety of opportunities that can be grasped by working in this remarkable industry.

I would be more than happy to work with leading professionals to help deliver this programme. I am sure we could get some government funding for the project, along with some serious sponsorship from other parties to deliver this much needed campaign.