Horticultural Technician
A Horticultural Technician grows, installs, and maintains indoor and outdoor plants, builds urban and rural landscapes, maintains outdoor properties, cares for turf grass and golf courses and installs and maintains irrigation systems. Specifically, a Horticultural Technician:
- grows plants using different propagation techniques
- identifies nutrient requirements of plants, applies fertilizers and monitors plants
- transplants, installs and prunes plants
- analyzes plant watering requirements and installs and maintains irrigation systems
- establishes and maintains turf grass
- constructs landscapes according to drawings
- controls plant pests and diseases using integrated pest management techniques
- recycles waste materials
Red Seal trade
APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM
An apprenticeship training program consists of on-the-job and in-school training. Generally, the time-frame to become competent in the trade of Horticultural Technician is 6,120 hours (approximately three years) consisting of 5,400 hours of on-the-job work experience and 720 hours of in-school training.
ON-THE-JOB TRAINING
An apprenticeship involves practical training provided on-the-job by a skilled worker, or trainer. The skills or competencies to be developed are set out by the trade’s apprenticeship training standard and are recognized by the industry as being essential to the practice of the trade.
As these essential skills are developed, the apprentice’s sponsor or trainer signs the relevant sections of the training standard to indicate that the apprentice has met the individual training objectives by demonstrating the skills required of a skilled worker, or journeyperson, in the trade.
IN-SCHOOL TRAINING
A Horticultural Technician apprenticeship includes two levels of theoretical training, which includes but is not limited to instruction in:
- plant science, botany and plant identification
- plant material and plant-handling techniques
- plant propagation techniques and plant production
- turf grass management
- landscape construction
- pest management
- landscape equipment maintenance
- irrigation (components, pipe layout and spray rates)
- site layout, and grading and drainage
- workplace communication and applied trade mathematics
- applied safety procedures and first aid
Depending on the training delivery agency, in-school training may be available in one of the following ways:
- block release (full-time, for a set number of weeks)
- day release (one day per week from September to June)
- part-time (night-school programs)
- alternative delivery (online, correspondence, etc.)
Horticultural Technician is a trade named under the Building Opportunities in the Skilled Trades Act, 2021.
This trade has an apprenticeship program that is administered by the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development. Upon completion of an apprenticeship program, the Ministry issues a Certificate of Apprenticeship.
This trade has a certifying exam. When the certifying exam is passed, Skilled Trades Ontario will issue a Certificate of Qualification in this trade. Because this trade is non-compulsory, this certificate does not have to be renewed, and the information of individuals practicing this trade will not appear on the Skilled Trades Ontario Public Register.
In Ontario, the trade is part of the Interprovincial Red Seal Program—the national standard for the trade across Canada— under the title Landscape Horticulturist: www.red-seal.ca.