Horticulture supervisor apprenticeship, level 3 · Register title: Horticulture or landscaping supervisor (ST0226), horticulture pathway
Grow the supervisor who can run your sites without you
The Growth and Skills Levy covers the training and assessment, and we handle the enrolment and the paperwork. Your apprentice learns on your own sites, with a tutor who comes to you, supervising a team, planning maintenance programmes, running projects to budget, and protecting plant health, heritage and biodiversity. They might be your most capable operative, ready to lead.
Matrix Standard accredited
What they'll be able to do
Three milestones, ending ready for assessment
Supervise a team safely, allocate work, set up safe systems of work, and communicate well with customers and colleagues.
Plan planting and maintenance programmes, manage tools and machinery, and plan pest and disease control using integrated methods.
Run site projects to budget, lead biosecurity and environmental protection, spot tree risks, propagate, and be ready for end point assessment.
Their learning journey
Five themes, built around your work
Leading safely
Health, safety and supervision, the industry, digital tools and records, and communication and customer care.
Running the site
Plant growth, tools, machinery and structures, vegetation control, soft landscape maintenance, and propagation.
Project management
Planning, specifications, budgets and keeping to them.
Soils, planting and turf
Soil management, planting and aftercare, and turf and meadow installation.
Environment, heritage, trees and water
Biosecurity, invasive species, biodiversity and heritage, tree safety and protection, and aquatic environments.
Practical assessment, project and professional discussion
A practical assessment with questions, a project with a report of up to 2,000 words and a presentation of at least 25 minutes, and a professional discussion based on their portfolio. Graded fail, pass or distinction.
Every programme works the same way. They learn it, use it in your organisation, then look back at what they did and why.
Know it
Plant science, soils, biosecurity, tree safety, and how projects and budgets work.
Show it
A team supervised, sites maintained to plan, and a project delivered on your ground.
Live it
Safety first, solving problems before they grow, and keeping the team together.
Who you could put forward
Someone already with you, or someone new
Your most capable operative
Ready to lead, and needing the supervision and planning skills to match.
A level 2 apprentice who's finished with you
Ryan moved straight on from level 2.
A team leader without formal training
Already running a crew, ready to do it with structure.
A gardener on a heritage or specialist site
The standard covers heritage, biodiversity and aquatic environments.
You're trusting us with someone from your team. Here's how we look after them.
One tutor from start to finish, who comes to your site and gets to know your ground and your team.
A one-to-one review every month, and a three-way review with you at the end of every stage. Nobody is guessing where they are or what's next.
Learning built around your season. Off-the-job time is agreed with you in hours per week before they start, and much of it happens on your own ground. No day or block release.
What your organisation gets
Sites that run without you, and projects to budget
Sites that run without you
A supervisor who plans the work, allocates it, and checks the quality.
Projects to budget
Site projects planned, specified and delivered within the money.
Risk managed properly
Health and safety, biosecurity and tree risk handled by someone trained to spot it.
Training and assessment are funded from the Growth and Skills Levy you already pay, up to the funding band for this standard. If you don't pay the levy, there's nothing to pay for apprentices under 25, and a 5% contribution for those aged 25 and over.
We check eligibility before you commit to anything. We complete the enrolment, the funding agreement, and the records the rules require, in the format auditors expect.
You get one named account manager, from your first conversation to your last review. If something isn't working, you go to them, and we take it seriously.
Where it leads
The next step, when they're ready
In development, for supervisors heading towards managing sites, budgets and contracts.
The honest answers
Questions people actually ask
At least 696 hours of off-the-job training across the programme. We convert that into hours per week for your season and agree it in writing before anyone starts.
Before end point assessment they need Level 3 Emergency First Aid at Work, a three-day course, and the pesticides awards PA1 and PA6. We'll tell you what's needed and when, so nothing catches you out at the end. We don't deliver the pesticides awards: employers arrange PA1 and PA6, which is usually straightforward where someone on the team already holds them.
Not always. Experience counts, and we check what they already know at the start.
Training and assessment are funded from the Growth and Skills Levy, up to £10,000. If you don't pay the levy, there's nothing to pay for apprentices under 25, and a 5% contribution for those aged 25 and over. We'll confirm exactly what applies before you commit.
If they move to a new employer, they can carry on their apprenticeship there. Your funding commitment from the Growth and Skills Levy ends when they leave.
Let's begin
Tell us who you'd like to back.
We'll reply within one working day. You'll know whether this programme fits them, what it costs you, and how quickly they could start. No commitment. And if we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.
Together, let's go