Growing the Next Generation of Landscapers: Our New Apprenticeship Programme in Teesside

September marks an exciting new chapter for Wilkinsons Landscapes as we welcome four new apprentices to the team – our largest apprenticeship intake to date and the beginning of what we hope will become a long-term programme for developing the next generation of skilled landscapers.

Working alongside East Durham College, we have introduced a structured three-year apprenticeship programme in Teesside designed to combine formal learning with real, hands-on experience within a working landscaping business.

For Wilkinsons, this is about much more than simply filling four new positions. It is an investment in skills, our future workforce and an industry that depends upon experienced tradespeople passing their knowledge on to the next generation.

Investing in skills for the future

Professional landscaping involves far more than many people realise.

Creating a garden from the ground up can require skills spanning horticulture, ground preparation, drainage, paving and hard landscaping, fencing, planting, machinery, construction and the interpretation of detailed garden designs.

Learning to do those things properly takes time.

Our apprentices will combine their studies at East Durham College with practical experience alongside established members of the Wilkinsons team, giving them the opportunity to put what they learn into practice on real landscaping projects across Teesside and the surrounding areas.

Over the course of the three-year programme, they will progressively develop their knowledge, practical skills and confidence while learning the standards of workmanship expected within a professional landscaping environment.

Learning from the ground up

There is a huge amount involved in creating a professionally landscaped garden – and much of the most important work is ultimately hidden beneath the finished result.

Before the porcelain paving, lawns and planting go in, there are levels to establish, ground to prepare, drainage to consider, foundations to construct and materials to understand.

Getting those fundamentals right is what allows the finished garden to look good and perform as it should for years to come.

By working alongside experienced landscapers, our apprentices can learn not only how each part of the job is completed, but why it is done that way.

That transfer of knowledge matters to us.

Wilkinsons Landscapes has been creating gardens across the North East since 1981. The experience accumulated during that time doesn't come from a textbook alone; it comes from decades spent designing gardens, solving problems and physically building outdoor spaces.

Passing that knowledge on is one way we can help ensure those skills continue into the next generation.

Creating routes into skilled work

Our decision to expand our apprenticeship programme also comes at a time when opportunities for young people entering the workplace have rarely felt more important.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics in August 2026 estimated that 981,000 people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were not in education, employment or training between April and June 2026 – around 13% of all young people in that age group.

Behind statistics like these are people trying to work out what comes next.

For many young people, a traditional academic route is not necessarily the right one – but that shouldn't mean there isn't a route into a rewarding, skilled career.

Apprenticeships offer something different: an opportunity to earn while learning, work towards recognised qualifications and develop practical skills and genuine workplace experience at the same time.

For businesses like ours, we believe there is both an opportunity and a responsibility to play a part in creating those routes.

Landscaping can offer a varied and rewarding career for someone who enjoys practical work, working outdoors and seeing the tangible results of what they have helped to create.

By giving people the opportunity to enter the industry and learn those skills properly, we aren't only investing in our own future workforce. We're helping to create a pathway into long-term skilled employment.

Building a programme for the future

For us, this year's intake is therefore about more than four new starters.

In previous years, apprenticeships have been considered individually as opportunities arose. This year, we're trying something more ambitious.

If our partnership with East Durham College and this first intake proves successful, our aim is to make the apprenticeship programme an annual intake, creating a continuous three-year pathway through the business.

Eventually, that could mean having first, second and third-year apprentices developing alongside one another: new starters beginning to learn the fundamentals while those further through the programme take on increasingly skilled work and greater responsibility.

At the end of that journey, we hope to have helped develop capable, qualified landscapers with three years of practical experience behind them – and, hopefully, people who will continue building their careers with Wilkinsons Landscapes.

It is an investment that takes time, but one we believe could have real benefits for our team, our customers and the wider landscaping industry.

Working with East Durham College

We're delighted to be working with East Durham College as we take this next step.

Combining formal education with experience inside a working landscaping company allows apprentices to connect what they learn in the classroom with the realities of delivering professional projects for customers.

For us, it also provides an opportunity to develop people from the beginning of their careers – teaching not only practical landscaping skills, but the standards of workmanship, professionalism, teamwork and customer service that we expect across Wilkinsons Landscapes.

And as the programme develops, we hope our own experienced team will have an important part to play in passing on the knowledge they've accumulated throughout their careers.

Welcome to the team

Taking on four apprentices together is a first for Wilkinsons Landscapes, and we're looking forward to seeing how each of them develops over the months and years ahead.

They have plenty to learn – but they also have plenty of experienced people around them to learn it from.

If the programme develops as we hope, these four won't just be this year's apprentices.

They'll be the first intake of many.

Welcome to Wilkinsons. 🌿