“Schools continue to portray land based industries as areas for low achievers and for those that can’t really do anything else”
Will Bowden, Programme Manager and Lecturer in Greenkeeping and Sports Turf, Cannington Centre
Will Bowden, Programme Manager and Lecturer in Greenkeeping and Sports Turf at Cannington Centre (Bridgwater College) has come into education from an industry background. Here he ponders the issues regarding ....
THE NEXT GENERATION
H
aving previously working as a Golf Course Superintendent in Auckland, New Zealand, and also as
Head Greenkeeper on courses in the UK, Will Bowden has brought his passion and enthusiasm for the turfcare profession into his educational role. In this article he reflects on the career choices he has made, what he believes the state of the industry is, how we can foster young talent and ensure the next generation of turf managers are as passionate and competent as their predecessors. “I am now at the end of my first year
here at Cannington and I have already experienced the immense satisfaction that comes with getting to know and developing relationships with students, and then seeing them go on to fulfil their potential both within academia and the wider industry. There is no doubt that education is one of the most satisfying sectors of our industry. Having the opportunity to assist in the development and achievement of young turfcare professionals is very different, but equally as satisfying as
maintaining and managing a golf course and its staff.
I came in to education from twelve years of working as a greenkeeper. I graduated from the old Cannington College in 1999 with a Foundation Degree in Golf Course Management. I progressed up the career ladder whilst bolstering my studies with educational scholarships to the US, and further developing my love of ecology and habitat management here at university in the UK. After almost two years of living and working in New Zealand as a Superintendent I saw the opportunity to return to Cannington (now part of Bridgwater College) and take up a role I had always imagined I would end up in eventually.
I have always been excited and passionate about greenkeeper education and, having fond memories of my own years at college and how my tutors shaped and forged my future within the industry, the opportunity to try and do the same for a new generation of turfcare students was too good to miss.
I fear that the industry is in somewhat of a decline at present. Being at the ‘coal face’ of education, in my experience, we are all struggling to encourage the once large numbers of enthusiastic and able students genuinely hungry for a career in sportsturf. Whilst elements of work based learning are thriving (under the new government initiatives of Train to Gain and the apprenticeship scheme) formal and higher education is a harder sector to manage.
I believe the problems we face as an industry are largely threefold:
• Empathy amongst career advisors and schools regarding the options available in the landbased sector
• Government initiatives that encourage schools to retain potential vocational students for longer
• The ongoing perception that our profession requires individuals to work long and unsociable hours and for minimal wages
Personally, I believe we, as an industry, need to do more to raise the profile of
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