My college experience was the same. Half the students dropped out at Xmas. Of those that stayed there was only one younger than me, I was 30 when I started my course, many of the rest were old enough to be my gran let alone my mum. About 15 of us finished the course, two of us have shops now, one other works in a shop, another kitchen sinks funerals and none of the rest have anything to do with floristry at all. It's a sad fact that this is a necessary evil to keep the courses running. In my area floristry courses are dwindling and it's a constant struggle for me to find good qualified florists.

I have a young florist fresh out of college and she says it was the same when she was at college too, lots of older ladies just doing it for something to do to get out of the house. It is a real problem I think, that younguns don't see floristry as a viable career option. Why is that? I'm not sure that changing the way the training is offered is the solution, the challenge is to get kids interested in floristry at all in the first place.