Bath & North East Somerset Council

Bath

Richard Baulch-Collett

Horticultural Excellence Team Manager

Young people embarking on their careers can’t usually expect their jobs to be something to write home about – but apprentice Tom Gladden’s is. Literally.

His work for the Parks & Gardens department at Bath & North East Somerset Council doesn’t just please his bosses and the residents of Bath but is featured on postcards and appears in hundreds of thousands of tourists’ photographs every year.

“I’m looking at a postcard right now of the Royal Victoria Park with our floral display on,” says Tom, 23, from Bristol. “Our work is looked at and highly regarded by everyone who sees it – and that’s very satisfying.”

That satisfaction is shared by Tom’s boss Richard Baulch-Collett, the council’s Horticultural Excellence Team Manager who started with the council as an apprentice himself 31 years ago but is now at the top of his tree.

“Apprenticeships are good for both parties,” he says. “You reap what you sow. You invest in people and their knowledge comes back into the organisation. Apprentices bring a variety of involvement and spark off interest you never thought you had.

“In recent years, the budget for the apprenticeship scheme got lost in the mix. Then a manager noticed it wasn’t being used and we renewed it.

“We have an ageing workforce and there comes a time when they retire. So the immediate benefit of having apprentices is continuity of skills in our organisation. And all of our apprentices have stayed on.”

Tom’s two-year apprenticeship has covered a cornucopia of tasks – everything from the seed packet to the compost heap – and is backed up by a day a week studying at Norton Radstock College.

“We have a very good relationship with the college and have done for many years,” says Mr Baulch-Collett. “They’re very flexible, and have been very supportive to Tom.

“A lot of local authorities don’t do what we do in Bath. We have our own nursery, we’re involved in Britain In Bloom, we host the Bath Spring Flower Show, and we have a prestigious reputation around the world.”

All of which has proved a perfect grounding for Tom, who says he always wanted to go into the horticultural industry.

“The council has a very good reputation as a parks department, so when this apprenticeship came up I grabbed it,” he says.

“The apprenticeship scheme offered me education as well as just a job, which was brilliant. It was a perfect opportunity and I’m very happy.”

Norton Radstock College