Case studies

There will always be work for tree surgeons and there’s nothing quite like passing on your knowledge and skills to a new generation of apprentices.

Simon Hoyles is a tree surgeon with a difference in several ways - he’s a one-man-band with two apprentices, one of them is female, and Simon’s own apprenticeship training was in diamond setting!  Read more...

‘Trees and Timber’ apprentices working in Epping Forest are training in a Forest recognised as having international importance because of its huge population of ‘veteran’ trees and their associated wildlife.

Among the first three apprentices to join the City of London Corporation, which owns the Forest, and must ‘conserve and protect as an open space for the recreation and enjoyment of the public’, is adult apprentice John Ireland.  Read more...

An apprenticeship is often described as a stepping stone into a new career. For 27-year-old Lee Catterick it is more a milestone that has become the foundation of a new life.

Lee is today a horticulture apprentice with Serco in the London Borough of Newham. He left school at 13, drifted in and out of ‘dead end’ jobs and ended up spending a year in prison.  Read more...

Apprenticeship training might be more often associated with big companies but an apprentice can gain much broader experience in a small organisation.

This is the case at Shenley Park in Hertfordshire where two horticulture apprentices have become invaluable members of the team.  Read more...