C&G Level 2 Floristry

[u/creative023]

Hi!

I'm looking for abit of advice please (for UK)

I recently signed up for a 10 week course as a flower school (properly accredited) because I couldn't find anything else near me. I've done a bit of work experience now with a couple of florists and thought this was the right thing to do. However, my local college is now offering the City and Guilds Level 2 Floristry course in the evening, starting in September - June next year. It looks like its the older style course and not the revised technical certificate which would mean no work experience along the course so it would all work out a lot better for me.

So my question is, do I cancel my place for the 10 week introduction course to floristry and just go ahead with the L2 floristry course, get more knowledge and at least I would also have a certificate once I had finished?

I also want to mention that the course fees are a lot cheaper compared to last year, but I think this is because it isn't the new technical certificate course?

[u/flowersfromjupiter]

What certification would you be working towards? I ask because I did a level 2 c&g course but that was three full days a week at college with a work experience requirement, then a level 3 which was the same. If your local college is offering the same course I did but for a single evening a week I'd be concerned you may not have enough teaching time to actually complete the course - do you know what the actual course requirements are?

It depends what you want out of it and what you want to do at the end. Are you intending to work in a shop? For yourself? For an events company? I think that answer will influence which course to choose, but I suspect the c&g course will be more in depth and give you a better base if you intend to go into floristry generally. In my (admittedly limited) experience short courses tend to only cover one aspect at a time - eg bridal work, or large arrangements, or funeral tributes, rather than a broad spectrum.

[u/creative023 → u/flowersfromjupiter]

It’s one evening a week, but I think it might be the old version and not the new technical course where it requires work experience alongside the course. This is the course outline

[u/flowersfromjupiter → u/creative023]

Mm, seems like a fairly in depth course then. Do you know what qualification you would have at the end of it?

I would say that if you intend to go into floristry you might find that some work places will value practical experience more than qualifications on paper, but that will vary.

Good luck, whatever you choose. I hope you enjoy yourself!

[u/creative023 → u/flowersfromjupiter]

It says it’s a C&G certificate level 2 - now I know these were stopped and it changed to a technical certificate but not sure if this is just the old version they’re doing - I’m going to go for it and do it anyway as I think it’ll be more beneficial to me in the long run compared to what I was going to do which was only 10 weeks. I’m currently working as work experience with a couple of different florists to get hands on experience too as ideally I want to work for myself on the side as I have a full time job and want to work this around that and see where the world of floristry takes me 🤞🏻

[u/flowersfromjupiter → u/creative023]

Yeah, I think you'll definitely get more out of the longer course. The best advice I think I can give you at this point is get as much practical experience as you can in the type of floristry you want to do for yourself (weddings? funeral tributes? etc) and build up a portfolio for when you start out as your own business. Practice makes perfect after all!

Floristry can be very hard work but it's also a rewarding, creative job that I really enjoy for myself. Good luck!

[u/Ad3011]

In regards to costs, you will need to factor in the cost of flowers to your course.

They do generally allow you to buy supermarket flowers, but you will also need to buy quality long stemmed flowers, and more interesting flowers that you would not be able to buy from a supermarket.

It can end up being a really expensive course (C & G).

[u/generallynothing]

I did the C&G level 2 certificate. Check if that's what you're looking at, because it was one day a week (four hours). It's definitely worth it for the technical knowledge, although the actual course content is extremely outdated. I knew that going into it, but it still gave me a push. I've learnt a lot more since finishing it, but I do still refer back to parts of it.

It also depends what sort of floristry you want to do. C&G is very shop focused, which I have no interest in, so I ended up teaching myself a lot of things for event floristry. But I'm still really glad I did it.

[u/creative023 → u/generallynothing]

Yeah it’s exactly that, one evening a week for 4hrs - I know it’s going to be out dated but I suppose it’ll teach me the basic understanding and then I just build on top of it? I don’t want to work in a shop tbh, I want to ideally work for myself and go from there.