[growcomm]

growcomm

06/02/2023 at 5:32 pm #80957

Do you want to develop your food-growing skills? Would you like to learn about the sustainable food movement?

Growing Communities is recruiting three trainee growers. The free training will involve learning all aspects of growing vegetables with a particular emphasis on salad leaves. You will work alongside the grower, learning all aspects of running our urban market gardens.

We are looking for enthusiastic people who are keen to learn how to grow food in a sustainable way, enjoy working outdoors and working with others. This traineeship is open to everyone, regardless of background. We acknowledge that the environmental sector is less accessible to people from minority backgrounds and we’re committed to doing what we can to correct this. We especially want to hear from you if you feel that opportunities like this are less available to you, or you don’t see yourself represented very often in the environmental or sustainable food sectors.

Traineeship description
Trainees will learn all aspects of running our urban market gardens by:
1. Assisting the grower on site one day a week. Tasks include seed sowing, potting on, planting out, weeding, watering, harvesting, making compost, record keeping, and any other associated tasks in the garden.
2. Working occasionally on other Growing Communities’ sites alongside other growers.
3. Supporting and supervising volunteers.
4. Attending six evening tutorials in organic food growing and the wider good food system.
5. Gaining experience supervising the garden work day and harvest when the grower is absent.

Person specification
Successful applicants will be able to show that they:
• Want to grow and sell food
• Are committed to the aims of Growing Communities to create a more sustainable, relocalised food system that’s fair to farmers, good for the planet and better for communities.
• Are able to work outdoors throughout the year in all weathers
• Are reliable, hardworking and organised
• Would benefit from this traineeship
• Work well with other people
• Have some experience or skills related to supervising volunteers
• Have an interest in pursuing food growing beyond the training. For example graduates often go on to some of these types of work/further training:
o Horticultural jobs in and outside London
o Further horticultural study, e.g Level 2 at Organiclea in Chingford
o Educational work involving growing
o Other jobs in the good food movement

Desirable
• Have some experience in food growing
• Are a confident cyclist
• Have volunteered with Growing Communities or another growing project

Dates and times
Three traineeships are available:
Apprenticeship 1: Monday 9am – 5pm (based at Springfield Park)
Apprenticeship 2: Mondays 9am – 5pm (based at Springfield Park)
Apprenticeship 3: Tuesdays 9am – 4pm (based at Clissold Park)

• The traineeships start in late March and run until the end of September.
• Six evening tutorials take place during the traineeship, dates to be confirmed.
• Trainees will be expected to attend and work at one salad pack (Tuesday 4.30-6.30pm) during the traineeship.
• The training is free and trainees receive a free weekly veg bag. There are also ad-hoc opportunities for paid work within the wider organisation.
• The work is based at our two urban market gardens: Springfield Park and Clissold Park (with occasional work at our other growing sites in Hackney).

Closing date for applications: 9am Monday 20 February.
Interviews will be held on Thursday 2 March.

For more info and how to apply, visit https://growingcommunities.org/jobs#htrainee

• This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by growcomm.