Gardener Trainee

The Gardener Trainee Certificate is part of a collaboration between San Francisco Parks and Recreation, Local 261, City College of San Francisco, and other agencies. Trainees perform routine and basic duties to assist gardeners and horticulturalists in the care of athletic fields, squares, parks, playgrounds, stadiums, thoroughfares, medians, and/or other landscaped areas. 

Course number	Course Title	Annual Sections	Annual Enrollment/Completions
O H 50	Introduction to Environmental Horticulture	4	120/120
O H 56	Horticultural Machines	1	30/30
O H 76	Fall and Winter Plant Identification	2	60/60
O H 63	Soils	1	30/30
O H 75	Pest Management	1	25/25
O H 77	Spring and Summer Plant Identification	2	60/60
O H 65	Plant Propagation	1	25/25
O H 70A	Principles of Landscape Design	2	40/40
O H 60	Business Practices	1	25/25
R F 82	Interior Plant Identification	1	20/20
O H 71A	Landscape Construction	2	40/40
O H 97	Work Experience	2	15/15

Program Goal: CTE

Purpose: Qualification in workforce preparation for employment as assistant groundskeepers, and landscape maintenance workers.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this program, students will be able to:

• Explain and distinguish various commercial and residential landscape, greenhouse, irrigation systems, and nursery operations.
• Identify Bay Area plants, their anatomical systems and their maintenance requirements.
• Describe and demonstrate readiness for entry into the environmental horticulture workforce.
• Apply various practices and techniques in environmental horticulture.

The Gardener Trainee Certificate is part of a collaboration between San Francisco Parks and Recreation, Local 261, City College of San Francisco, and other agencies. Trainees perform routine and basic duties to assist gardeners and horticulturalists in the care of athletic fields, squares, parks, playgrounds, stadiums, thoroughfares, medians, and/or other landscaped areas. 

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this program, students will be able to:

• Explain and distinguish various commercial and residential landscape, greenhouse, irrigation systems, and nursery operations.
• Identify Bay Area plants, their anatomical systems and their maintenance requirements.
• Describe and demonstrate readiness for entry into the environmental horticulture workforce.
• Apply various practices and techniques in environmental horticulture.

The minimum time for completion of this certificate is 3 semesters. Completion time will vary based on student preparation and number of units or classes completed per semester.

Course	Units	Sequence (year, semester)
First semester:
O H 50 - Introduction to Environmental Horticulture	3.00	Y1, S1
O H 76 - Fall and Winter Plant Identification	4.00	Y1, S1
Total:	7.00
Second semester:
O H 77 - Spring and Summer Plant Identification	4.00	Y1, S2
Total:	4.00
Third semester:
O H 68 - Irrigation	3.00	Y2, S1
O H 97 Work Experience 2.000-4.000	2-4.00	Y2, S1
Total	6.00
Grand Total	16-18.00

The horticulture program fits with other City College Programs such as Botany and Art in that student will be learning about plants and ecology or learning to draw and work with design situations using 3 dimensional media. The program fits well with pharmacology as we grow plants that may have healing properties and with Culinary for growing food crops.

This program is unique to the Bay Area in that it trains people to work specifically in, and is designed around the needs of Gardener Requirements. It also features full semester, credit classes, offered by primarily full-time instructors. All curriculum, certificates, and degrees are approved by our Horticulture Advisory. Since 1935 City College of San Francisco District has held program agreements with all other Bay Area Districts that offer Horticulture Programs. Programs at Mission College and CSM, in Horticulture and Floristry, have been eliminated. Programs at Canada and Merritt College have more of a residential focus.