Last week at CSU’s CoBank Center for Agricultural Education at ARDEC, Summit teamed up with Zak George from Zak George Landscaping to educate a group of Colorado teachers involved in the Landscape Career Pathways Program. The program was founded by the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado, ALCC, and the Colorado Community College System, CCCS.
Denver 7 News followed along. (See link to news story below)
What it is
Pathways is designed to teach and train high school students so they can be job ready upon graduation. Our goal as a program Ambassador is to help get the right knowledge about the landscaping industry into the hands of the teachers. They then take the necessary skills and information back to their classrooms and teach the students what they would need to know in order to work on a landscaping crew upon graduation. Teachers and students are taught basic design plan reading, surveying, drainage, hardscaping, plant installation, and irrigation. All valuable skills to have when applying for a job with a landscaping company.
The Goal
The objective is for a student to take the skills they have learned as part of their regular curriculum, and use it to their benefit when applying for a job. They would be coming to a job interview at a landscape company knowing exactly what was expected of them on the job site.
The Benefits
The landscape industry is very short on qualified labor. It’s not a secret that building is booming in Colorado and landscapers can’t install jobs fast enough to keep up with the demands both commercially and residentially. Hiring landscapers that have been trained in high school is a win win situation for both the new landscape employee and the company. That employee is ready to go out in the field and begin working sooner, and in turn, the on boarding and training process for the company is much shorter.
Link:
colorado-landscape-businesses-face-worst-shortage-of-workers-in-years
Education is something that is important to our company. We are very fortunate in Colorado to have an association like ALCC, as well as vendors and suppliers who offer a wide variety of meetings, classes, and certifications. We will always encourage our employees to gain as much knowledge as they can soak in. Check out the link for the video below and let us know what you think.