Sparsholt College has joined forces with Marshalls, the UK’s leading hard landscaping manufacture to further strengthen its horticulture and landscaping courses. The Marshalls’ Education Partnership, launched today, will provide additional expertise and resource to further enhance students’ learning experience and help develop industry links to boost career opportunities.
Marshalls has a long-term strategy to support students undertaking landscaping and horticulture courses. The Education Partnership further promotes the benefits of a landscaping career to help address the increasing demand for trained professionals in the industry and will link Sparsholt students with Marshalls Register members in order to gain work experience in the industry.
Commenting on the partnership Sparsholt College Principal, Tim Jackson said: “We already have an incredible team here delivering first class horticulture and landscaping courses and our students are all snapped-up into good professional roles and it is disappointing to tell some employers that we have no more completing students to fill their vacancies. We would like to encourage more young people to consider a career in the many aspects of horticulture. This agreement with Marshalls will further enhance the student experience and we hope will also encourage other young and not so young people to consider a rewarding and varied career in landscape and design where there are some well-paid roles available and a shortage of new entrants. Marshalls will not only be there to support our teaching team, but will also provide expert masterclasses and a suite of their renowned landscape materials for our college. The links to the Marshalls Register will also be invaluable to our students looking to develop their professional careers”.
As part of the Education Partnership, Marshalls has also committed to provide teaching materials such as specifications, drawings and videos; the opportunities for students to visit Marshalls’ factory and production facilities to gain a better understanding of how hard landscaping materials are produced; support for internal college landscaping competitions and work experience opportunities with Marshalls’ installers.
David Jessop, Operations Manager of the Marshalls Register said: “Working in partnership with colleges to promote landscaping as an attractive career choice felt like a natural progression for Marshalls. There is a shortage of skilled new entrants to the landscaping sector, but demand for their services is higher than ever before. We want to encourage students to pursue a career in this wonderful industry, and instil best practice from the outset.”
He added: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Sparsholt College and look forward to working together in the future to provide their landscaping students with the best possible start to their careers”.
Sparsholt College has a national reputation for garden design, horticulture and landscaping expertise with a number of leading industry figures on the teaching team. An RHS Chelsea Flower Show Medal winner since 1998, the five hectares of first class grounds and facilities include landscaped gardens, glasshouses and the BBC Gardener’s Question Time potting shed.
For more information on the full range of landscaping and horticulture courses, visit the Horticulture section of our website here!