Florist News

Hi,
Just thought it would be a good idea to give a heads up on some of the pitfalls of training, particularly "doing a course" for those of you who are serious about a career in floristry.
1. Make sure it is a reputable course - a lot of them have no idea what they are doing, apart from making money out of people who have no industry experience. I'm sure the locals on here would be able to make some suggestions of where to go for quality training
2. Don't go back to work and tell your boss they are doing it all wrong! There are many different ways of doing things and if you do a course you will know one way, which may not be the way your boss does it
3. I've always felt that a course is no subtitute for on the job training, but an excellent way to reinforce that training and have it formally judged and acredited

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Send Flowers Rockingham www.rockinghamcityflorist.com
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Just to explain why I started this thread: The last few years I have found it very difficult to find good, qualified staff. Used to be the other way around and we could take our pick, or just find staff by word of mouth. Now I run an ad in the paper for a month and don't get anyone that I would call a florist

A lot of training that is available is doing absolutely nothing to help this skill shortage. A couple of years ago I took someone on for work experience because she said she was doing a course. I later found out it was a correspondence course I gave her as chance though becasue she was keen and she's coming along nicely. However, I no longer want to train people, after lossing a few staff over the years who left after I'd turned them into brilliant florists. Perhaps if the wannabes actually get a decent start by doing courses where they learn real floristry we might have a better chance of keeping this industry going, despite all the competition (supermarkets, flowers-by-post etc) and other pitfalls.

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Send Flowers Rockingham www.rockinghamcityflorist.com
Rockingham Florist flowers delivered www.hangingbasketflorist.com.au

hi im a stutent and also do volentry in a shop 1 day a week.I agree there are all different ways of working. I believe you get trained at college a certain way which is good as it gives you a foundation to build on.Once you are working in the big wide world however you use these skills as a base and find different ways which work for you.I defenately think you should try and get a little bit of hands on experience too.I have learned so much from the shop,things that i havnt done in college.

Exactly jo... the college gives you a BASIS, a starting block. In this business you're never finished learning! I do not believe that you can ever know everything about flowers, and every way of floristry, as everyone has their own wee tricks.
I knew a student once who thought that once she had qualified she would walk straight into a florists job. Last I heard she was working in M & S and not even in the flower dept!

Obvsiouly there are some brill students out there, its just the ones that think because theyve done their course they automatically know as much about floristry as the owner of a business for 25 years +, that most people have problems with.

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www.AmandasFlorist.co.uk

We bring our creations to life.

Please..... somebody gag me before I leap on my soap box. Learn, get experience, learn some more, get some more experience........learn....... and on.....and on..............

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'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it'. Voltaire

I think a rigorous course is a good foundation. I mean college course, not evening classes in 'flower arranging'.

NPTC City & Guilds are updating their specifications this September to reflect the demands of the modern floristry environment which I think will be excellent.

My tutors have NDSF and ICSF and 25+ years diverse experience. I think I have chosen well.

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i believe that college courses are now run on the basis that everyone must pass..which is not altogether a good thing....in my group we had old ladies doing the course for something to do and having weeks off for thier holidays they still passed without doing half the course and other people with obviously no talent for floristry and they still passed....fill the courses get thier money.of course there were still people who did have a great talent and did win big competitions.
experience counts for alot but you have to have the opportunity to obtain the experience i have learnt so much since finishing my courses and working in a florist.......but i still would love to do more courses just to refresh and learn more about the art

Redhead, that is awful!! What course did you do? There is something very wrong if that sort of cheating can go on. We had a outside examiner come in when I took my city and guilds courses. She made sure the course standard was maintained.

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Rainbow

Quote of the day : We see the law around us every day.......justice is a little harder to find.

ours was the same redhead and scarily most people come out with credits at least (ob i got quite a few distictincitons with me being so good an all). They have to let everyone pass to get the funding - no pass on money and unfortunately thats how all training works. I will say though that i am the only one left out of a full class i believe who has got a shop and who is even in the industry. I was serious from the start but you do get a lot who go on the courses in the day because they are free and they get free childminding also (in our area).

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.