Career Pathway

The route taken, or planned, for a career. There isn't usually a typical career pathway, especially for one in the grounds care industry, but a general guide for a career pathway can be provided. The following career pathway is categorised into ages, but other criteria could be used.

Young Person (16-18 year old): Gaining employment, either as an assistant, trainee or apprentice would be the initial starting place.

Where an employer is willing to engage with a formal apprenticeship programme (typically a Level 2) then this would be one consideration, however, a full-time job is not guaranteed at the end of an apprenticeship programme, unless the employer has taken an individual on as an employee in the first instance and then enrols them onto an apprenticeship programme.

If an employer does not wish to engage with a formal apprenticeship programme then there are opportunities to become an employee, usually as a trainee assistant, or similar title. This doesn't mean that training and development would not be provided, it just means that the employer had not wished to follow the formal apprenticeship route, which in some cases can be seen to be burdensome and bureaucratic for an employer, but they would typically provide other education and training opportunities.

A key challenge at this stage of a career is to find a suitable position in a convenient location, probably close to home, as pay would typically be at the lowest or lower end of the scale.


Young adult (19-21 year old): An individual may have started out in another industry and had not found that to their liking, so a change can be ideal to gain a foothold in a new industry.

Alternatively, they may have stayed on at further education college to gain additional qualifications, whether academic or vocational, and decided they wanted a job which is, or is not, directly related to their subject area/s.

This is not necessarily going to be a disadvantage when compared with someone who may have started their career right from school because this young adult will (or should) be able to bring a more mature approach to the employment and will have gained some transferable employability skills, even if they stayed on at college because time keeping, personal management, good communication etc. are all transferable skills.

Gaining an industry specific Level 2 qualification (typically within a 12-month period) to provide the core basic skills and knowledge is an important consideration, and then this would be followed up with a Level 3 qualification, which might be a Level 3 apprenticeship.

An individual would be aiming to have a minimum of two full years of experience to gain an initial understanding of the influences the different seasons can have on turf maintenance requirements.


Developing career (22-30 year old): This can cover quite an age group, but might be considered as someone who as at least one or two years of experience and at least an industry specific Level 2 qualification.

They will be wanting to consolidate and develop their knowledge and skills to become a lot more capable than someone who is just competent. What this means is that becoming, initially, competent and qualified demonstrates you are able to respond to foreseen, known and planned conditions and situations, for example, in particular those you have been coached and taught during your training and early education programme.

Being capable extends this learning response to being able to think more outside of the box, being able to respond effectively and efficiently to changing and unplanned situations and conditions, and be more able to work and make decisions, especially routine ones, on your own without needing clarification from a colleague, supervisor or manager.

Getting about 5-years of experience will help to consolidate a wealth of grounds maintenance knowledge and skills, during which time you may also gain an assistant head / deputy grounds manager role.

Partway through this early development stage or at least towards the end of it, you should be thinking about new what skills and knowledge are required for your career. For example, more in-depth and specialist technical knowledge may be required, or maybe supervisory / line management skills should be considered ready for your next career stage.

As an alternative, with the hands-on skills and knowledge gained a move to a sales role might also be considered, which might, for example, be for a machinery distributor, who would also require machine demonstrators, or a general amenity supplier of materials.


Career consolidation (31-50 year old): By this time in a career you will usually have a considerable amount of experience and will be focused on one particular route for the time being.

However, this may also mean that after a certain period of time gaining experience in one industry route, you may decide that another route is then required (in the same industry) to broaden your expertise even further.

This can also be a period of your career when you are able to mentor others and may also consider a role, maybe even full-time, in training and educating other people in the industry, especially those who are just starting out.


Career pinnacle (51 years and above): You could be at your peak earning capability by now and may have achieved, or be close to achieving, the highest role you have wished to achieve or been able to achieve.

Your knowledge and skills from many years in the industry should be now be considerable and you may be looked on as an expert in one or more fields.

Consider if you are in a position to leave a legacy for future generations, which in most cases could be a well-documented critique of your career experiences, a source document of what you have learnt during your career, or an active role in encouraging people younger than yourself into the industry and developing those already within it.