The Royal Horticultural Society's Certificate of Horticulture has long been recognised as offering the 'gold standard' in garden education. Offered at three levels, it is the RHS Level Two Certificate that has been the most widely taken, giving a good grounding in practical and theoretical skills. It is a great course for anyone who wants to improve their gardening skills, and is often taken as the first step in a career change into horticulture as it is highly valued by employers.
Originally developed some decades ago, the course was looking increasingly old-fashioned, designed for an era when gardening was centred on an annual cycle of preparing for elaborate displays of bedding plants. Talk of modernising the course has been in the air for a number of years, a discussion document was produced three years ago, and the implementation was postponed because of the pandemic. It finally went live on September 1, 2022.
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More on the new RHS Level 2 Certificate
The RHS Level 2 course is now known as the RHS Level 2 Certificate in the Principles and Practices of Horticulture. It is made up of two separate certificates - the Certificate in Practical Horticulture and the Certificate in the Principles of Plant Growth and Development. Each certificate involves 120 hours of learning. You can find details of colleges that run the theory courses on the RHS website and there are now several providers that allow you study for RHS Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Plant Growth and Development online (you will need to study for the Practical Horticulture certificate in person).
One of the tutors on the new course is Tom Cole, now head of faculty at Writtle University College, who has been teaching it since 1991. For him the new course is “About bringing it up to date. The biodiversity section is really good, it's out there, a subject in its own right.” Indeed, this is what first struck me about the new course – there is a whole lot of new material on the role of the gardener in supporting biodiversity, in being aware of sustainability issues, the value of green space in helping people live healthy lives, and in helping create inclusive communities. Inevitably there is also a section on climate change. There is also one on the 'garden economy', a recognition that we, in Britain at any rate, are an important part of economy as a whole.
The courses is “all more holistic” in Tom's words. Given the criticism that is so often levelled at professional qualifications in Britain, that they have become less and less practical, it was good to hear him say that he thought the course was “more practical in many senses”, an example being “there's content on the maintenance of hard landscape features; we're not going to be teaching how to put a panel fence but students will be expected to know about preserving and repairing, that's very good”. This is not only about sustainability (better to repair than replace) it is also recognising what is useful knowledge in the working lives of many garden professionals.
The 'old' qualification seemed aimed at private practice where clients had a vision of striped lawns and neat rows of begonias
The 'old' qualification seemed aimed at people who might be working for council parks departments, or for private practice where clients had a vision of striped lawns and neat rows of begonias. Having said that, as an online tutor of parts of the course myself, I know that many keen amateurs do it too, as a way of learning the science behind good garden practice as well as essential knowledge and skills.
RHS Level 2: aimed at the modern gardener
Working my way through preparing teaching materials for the new Level 2 course I had a very strong vision of the new kind of gardening practitioner who it might be aimed at. This person could be involved in one of the many 'city farm', 'community garden' or 'urban agriculture' projects that have sprouted over the last few decades. They need to know not just about photosynthesis and plant nutrition but also about the therapeutic benefits of horticulture, about community building through working on projects together, and even if they are not that interested in 'wild' nature, their colleagues and certainly their management committee will expect them to care about the biodiversity in the trees and hedges that surround the project. Indeed, the members of the management committee themselves would benefit from doing this course.
The new course is about the gardener being part of the natural world, being aware of the impact their activities have on the wider world, to the wider community and their responsibilities to the nature that is inevitably part of the garden. It is about a new, wider, but also somehow more generous conception of what it means to be gardener.
The new RHS Level 2 Syllabus
Out with…
Greenhouse management
Fruit and veg growing as a distinct topic
Alpines and rock gardens
In with...
How gardeners need to support biodiversity and communities
More on sustainability
More on climate change
Learning with Experts offers the new RHS Level 2 qualification in eight segments, hosted by Noel Kingsbury and Tom Cole. You can start the course at any time, and study at your own pace. You can join a small friendly online classroom and interact with other students on your course.
Book on the course at Learning with Experts.