KWANTLEN HORTICULTURE GRADS FIND CAREERS IN GREENHOUSE INDUSTRY

As a child, Lori Baratta spent hours in the backyard and garden with her father. So it was only natural when it came time to choose a career.

“I just knew I wanted to go into horticulture,” said Baratta, an apprentice grower with Delta’s Hot House Growers, Inc., which produces greenhouse-grown tomatoes.

As a teenager, Baratta worked the grunt jobs at local nurseries, but knew she needed to learn the basics of growing if she ever wanted to open up her own nursery.

After graduating from Pacific Academy in Surrey, she enrolled at Kwantlen University College’s School of Horticulture. This past March, before graduating from the school’s two-year specialist Diploma in Greenhouse and Nursery Technology program, the 23-year-old was offered a prime apprentice grower position at Hot House Growers, Inc., in Delta.

“It’s a privilege to work with growers who have been in the industry for so long,” she said. “I like the fact that it’s a challenge on a day-to-day basis.”

Baratta is one of dozens of graduates from Kwantlen’s School of Horticulture who have gone on to find successful careers in the greenhouse industry.

“Most people, when you say horticulture, they think about digging holes or pulling weeds,” said Gary Jones, a production horticulture instructor with Kwantlen. “They have no idea of the opportunities it can provide going into research, sales or growing. Most people have little appreciation of the technical aspects or the sciences involved in greenhouse operations, or the managerial skills need to run such a complex business.

“The industry is often unfairly criticized for things like growing food with ‘chemical residues that you get on mass-produced stuff’. Nothing could be further from the truth. All the greenhouse growers I know in B.C. are some of the most environmentally responsible people I have come across. This doesn’t happen by chance, but by hard work, education and dedication.”

About 30 students go through the program annually. Many go on to land jobs in the Lower Mainland’s flower and vegetable greenhouse industry, which produces 21 percent of B.C.’s total agriculture production value. In addition, similar numbers go through the Turf and Landscaping Diplomas, and still others graduate as Horticulture Apprentices or complete the one-year ‘Technician’ programmes.

The program, which celebrates its tenth year this year, was born because growers wanted to keep abreast of the latest technologies and find professional workers, Jones said. Its hands-on approach means students visit greenhouses, listen to growers speak and work inside the greenhouses.

All of the Greenhouse and Nursery Technology students are required to have a minimum of 500 hours of hands-on work in a greenhouse operation before graduating, he said.

“We want our students to leave not only with the academic knowledge, but also with the practical application,” Jones said. “That’s really important for us and also for our students’ potential employers.”

Having science-based, practical knowledge is vitally important to employers, says Jonathan Bos, director of operations for Hot House Growers, Inc.

“You’re dealing with important issues like biological pest controls, plant physiology and food safety. Having someone who understands all those issues is not only important to us as employers, but to the community as well,” he said. “Kwantlen’s program is key to helping us find skilled and knowledgeable people.”

Finding those people is integral to the economy and to helping produce food for British Columbians, said Mary-Margaret Gaye, executive director of the BC Greenhouse Growers’ Association. The nonprofit organization represents 50 greenhouse vegetable farms in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

“The great thing about greenhouses is that we offer college and university graduates positions as highly-skilled growers, supervisors and managers,” she said. “Because our crops are grown virtually year round, we employ year round.”

Baratta credits her experience at Kwantlen for landing her job, where she spends days working with the greenhouse’s climate control, overseeing crop regulations and measurements and supervising others.

“I’m hands on. I also really like the technology side and the creative side of things,” Baratta said. “I knew horticulture offered the best of it all.”

-30-

For more information on careers in greenhouses, click here.

^ back to top