Floristry

Florists use creativity and knowledge of plants and flowers to design and assemble floral displays. These can be sold to the general public through shops and market stalls and can also be sold to businesses and event organisers.

Florists normally work between 35 and 40 hours per week, during normal shop opening times. There may be some early starts for delivery of flowers and extra hours to be worked at busy periods such as Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. Self- employed florists will need to work flexible hours to meet customer needs and there may be additional duties such as staff management, administration, and customer care.

Florists work indoors in a workroom or shop, or outdoors if running a market stall or delivering floral arrangements to customers.

The industry is mostly made up of small businesses that are often linked together by larger organisations like Teleflorist and Flowergram. Because businesses are small, florists must possess a variety of skills including sales, marketing, promotion, accounts, and stock ordering.

On this Apprenticeship, you’ll study units on how to maintain the condition of plants for sale, how to construct a variety of wedding and funeral arrangements, and how to process payments. On the Advanced Apprenticeship, your responsibilities will grow to include management, negotiation and sales techniques, and stock control. Florists require hard-working and trained staff, because the quality of their work directly affects the business.

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