The Green Team provides support, training and work experience to help participants improve their landscaping skills, and employability whilst working on a real-life community project.
Course structure
Green Team is a 10 to 14 week course for those aged 19 to 65 who are not in employment, education or training work. The team work on a full programme of real environmental projects, learning landscaping and horticulture skills that will help them to secure employment.
As part of the project there is usually the opportunity to work towards two City & Guilds level one qualifications in Horticulture and Employability. These qualifications demonstrate their practical knowledge and their readiness for work, respectively. The Employability qualification offer the chance to improve interview skills and job searching techniques, as well as writing a CV and undertaking a mock interview with a local employer.
Green Team courses can also include working towards a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) health and safety test to obtain a CSCS card. The card demonstrates to future employers that an individual has attained an agreed level of occupational competence and is a requirement for working on construction sites.
Professional project results and local community benefits
The landscape improvement projects benefit the local community on a site that is used by local residents. Work includes creation of raised planting beds, minor fencing and surfacing works, and clearance of vegetation and of small structures.
Projects in your local area
If you would like to work with us to run courses for your local residents:
Volunteer stories
“They were very supportive towards my learning and also my needs. They complimented each other well and shared their knowledge in a very clear and patient manner.”
“The Green Team course has been great. Not only have I made new friends on the course, I have also got to be involved in various projects that involved making peoples lives just a little bit better. A very rewarding course.”
“Being on the project / course for three months has helped me more than any doctor or therapist in the last 2 and half years, you deserve medals for how much you help others. You’re amazing and I feel incredibly lucky to have been under your guidance and to have met you.”
Funder and partner feedback
“Thank you for the invitation to your celebration of the Green Team on 22 January. [We] were most impressed with your ogranisation and how [you] created a team of strangers and encouraged them to work and grow together and produce that wonderful play and learning space for the very lucky pupils at Ermine Street Academy.”
“The participants gained a huge amount from being involved in the project, learning new skills and growing in confidence.”
“The Groundwork East team were friendly, professional and easy to work with. They are passionate about what they do and this comes across in the quality of their work and positive impact on the people and organisations they work with.”
Thanks to funding from: