Participant case studies

The Women and Work Programme has proved invaluable to our business.  The Marketing training has really moved us forward and we are now experiencing much higher customer numbers than before. The retail was invaluable and we now have a plan which we are working with.  Also our basket spend is increasing and our customer care is a special area of focus.

Getting agricultural tractor driving and artificial insemination training has seen 44-year-old mum-of-two Andrea Jones take up a new role she had never imagined.

“Driving is a real achievement for me,” says Andrea, who suffered from epilepsy until 12 years ago. “I never thought I would get a license to drive a car never mind go on a course to improve my tractor driving skills.”

Horse dentist Claire Vincent got the bit between her teeth with gun sports when she trained her beloved black Labrador Crumble to pick up at shoots. Now thanks to Women and Work she has seen the potential in turning her hobby into a second career.

 “Five years ago my husband called me at work to say the crumble was ready  – he’d been out and bought me the black Labrador puppy I’d so wanted and had already named Crumble,” says Claire.

Growing quality seedlings for the booming plug plant industry is something Bordon Hill Nurseries Ltd excels at  - but its not just plants it nurtures. The company together with Lantra’s Women and Work scheme has helped HR officer Michelle Dale grow her own career.

“Being able to take my NVQ Level Five in personnel strategy thanks to Lantra’s funding is almost the final piece in the jigsaw for me, ” says Michelle.

For garden designer Penny Rushby-Smith family circumstances followed by the recession were the catalyst for a change in career. Through an innovative scheme called Forest Schools she’s been able to marry her love of the outdoors and the chance to work with children.

“Women and Work funding came along at just the right time for me,” says Penny, “with the recession biting at my garden design business and a desire to broaden my skills I came across the Forest Schools scheme.

Building up a modest apple juice and cider production business on her small-holding has given Rachel Benson a taste of the good life as she and her partner strive to be as self-sufficient as possible.

“Being self-sufficient means a real commitment to a way of life,” says 41-year-old Rachel, “six years ago my partner and I plus two friends decided to try and produce as much of our own food. It has been a wonderful experience.”

To many it might sound hackneyed to say that Tracey Guiller has carved out a new future for herself working with timber but there’s no other way of describing the change in direction 45-year-old Tracey has gone through.

“If someone told me five years ago that I’d have a chainsaw qualification and found myself working on a woodland project as well as selling work I’d created myself from timber I doubt I’d have believed them,” says Tracey.

Lauren Stevens heard about women and work and the programme for funding towards further training through a colleague. She saw it as an opportunity not to be missed and, as soon as she had highlighted training that would be beneficial for her business, she applied.

Director of RESET, Blanche Cameron, suggested that the three day Living Roof Training that they were running through Lantra’s Women and Work project would be beneficial to Kelly Gunnell, a volunteer who is now responsible for co-ordinating RESET’s Integrated Habitats Design Competition 2010.  The course in fact prepared her for the competition and communicating its aims to partners, sponsors and participants.

I would like to thank you for your help and guidance through this process and to say how we appreciated your support.

This grant makes a big difference to our business , but it is great to see some recognition for the increasing contributions women are making within horticulture!

“The Women and Work funding has been so helpful to me because it means I can really get involved with the business in a way that I couldn’t have before.  I found the idea of using a chainsaw quite scary and so doing the course was really confidence boosting.”

Thanks to Lantra’s Women and Work scheme graduate Katy Nicholson hopes her latest qualification, in using a chainsaw, should help her carve a career in the conservation industry.

For 22-year-old Katy Nicholson volunteering and getting additional qualifications are, she hopes, the way to get onto the career ladder.

Amanda Patton heard about the Women and Work programme from Rosie Barfoot, who she met through the Enterprising Women in Dorset group, of which she is a member.  "I wasn't sure if I'd be eligible, as I've been in business for 10 years and am pretty well established; however, there is a dirth of female garden designers at the top of the profession."

Sam Dowdall has gone from the cut-throat world of retail to the responsibility of managing visitors in an historic country park thanks to her own determination and job-specific training.

Sam, who is 36, is the visitor services manager at picturesque Coombe Country Park.

Catherine Clancy set up and runs her own garden design business, Inspired Gardens (www.catherineclancy.com), based in the Blackheath and Greenwich areas of London.

"I think its so important to keep learning and taking training courses. Unfortunately, some of the professional training courses can be expensive. In 2008, Lantra's Women and Work project provided funding for a Vectorworks CAD training course, which has been a huge benefit to my design practice."

After several years in a desk based job Catherine Tregaskes decided to change her career and find a job outdoors.  After some time volunteering Catherine accessed a training grant through Lantra’s Women and Work Programme and now has a full time job as a Conservation Officer at Groundwork Leicester and Leicestershire (GWLL).

Involvement in a Women and Work training course has made a huge difference to Sarah Cross individually, as a manager, as part of the Groundwork UK team, and changed the way her department works.

Sarah is Programmes Manager for Groundwork UK’s environmental business services team in the West Midlands.

Four training courses Grace Wallace was able to take because of Lantra’s Women and Work initiative have improved and polished her skills for a new role with Groundwork UK this summer.

Grace already knew she was moving from the role of Mineral Valleys Heritage Project Officer to become Derwentside Heritage Project Officer before she took the courses.  She really appreciated Groundwork’s investment in her professional development and the contribution form the Women adn Work project.

Farmer’s wife and mother Maureen Ling, whose husband Dick and son Richard farm near Palgrave in Suffolk, says “Women & Work” has enabled her to learn new skills on the computer and to use the Internet to increase efficiency and profits on their 700-acre dairy and arable farm, The Rookery.

Learning to ‘climb trees’ will give Julie Jamieson’s career a major boost - thanks to Lantra’s Women and Work training initiative.