Horticulture Short Courses

Certificate in Garden Management and Plant Selection
You will be taught to identify a wide range of plants, their cultural requirements, and their suitability for different planting situations. You will gain the skills and knowledge to develop and
maintain a garden. 

• Selecting and growing plants for situations such as ponds, seasonal bedding, hedging,  small gardens as well as specialist plant groups e.g. alpines, ferns, grasses and  bamboos.
• Identifying plants by relevant characteristics.
• Maintenance of parks and mixed borders, care and management of naturalistic  plantings.
• Fruit and veg cultivation of a range of top fruit, soft fruit and vegetables on a small  garden scale.
• Basic design principles will address the use of plant materials, colour, form, texture,  structure and layout.
• Factors in managing estates and parks.

Certificate in Landscape Design
This certificate will introduce you to the landscape design process working from analysis, concept, through to solution. 

• Surveying: linear surveying, level surveying, transferring information to sketch form.
• Drawing: use of drawing equipment and drawing standards, draft site survey and site   analysis drawings, draft masterplan drawings .including section/elevation drawings, draft planting plans, draft axonometric drawing, draft construction details.
• Design approaches: principles of design and elements of design, history of designed  landscapes.
• Costings: prepare design plants and specifications for given situations, costing proposed  new designed landscapes.

Certificate in Nursery Stock Production
This certificate will focus on developing your nursery stock production, management and planning skills.

• Crop requirements: Nutritional  programmes, planning a crop protection programme, propagation systems, compost specification, sources of material, budding  and grafting for field tree production, planting techniques and harvesting techniques. For a    range of specific crops such as bedding  plants, linear production: Open ground trees and shrubs.
• Management approaches to nursery stock: planning the physical layout of a nursery, schedule production programmes, irrigation systems, monitoring crop performance, sustainable plant production systems and use of contemporary new  developments.
• Quality assurance schemes: Quality standard specification for bedding, liners, trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants.

Certificate in Sportsturf Science
This course will develop your understanding of the construction and maintenance of turf and artificial surfaces used for sports. It will be of benefit to candidates who seek to increase their scientific knowledge of the turf-based surfaces they establish and maintain. It would be of great benefit to greenkeepers, irrigation and lighting specialists, stadium managers, and landscape contractors already working in the area, or indeed to candidates who have specialised in other areas of Horticulture but seek work in the sportsturf industry.

• Turfgrass science:  soils for sportsurf, drainage  and irrigation for sportsturf, grass morphology  and physiology,  turfgrass pathology  and entomology,  sportsturf weeds and control
• Turfgrass maintenance:  turfgrass mowing,  management  of organic  matter, nutrition of turfgrass, aeration and compaction relief of turfgrass, renovation and repair of turfgrass, topdressing and materials, growth regulation, and other maintenance techniques.
• Construction and maintenance of a range of sportsturf facilities: sports pitches, bowling greens, cricket grounds, lawn tennis courts, equestrian sports and artificial surfaces.

Prior Qualifications

Students will be required to have formal horticultural education prior to admission.  Evidence of such qualifications will be assessed by SETU Waterford prior to admission. The following table gives a list of horticultural qualifications to gain entry to these awards. Students presenting with suitable qualifications examined in English will be deemed to have demonstrated proficiency in English.

Title: FETAC Award in Horticulture 5M2586 and level 6 award 6M4334

Duration: 2 years

Programme: Any recognised FETAC provider of horticultural programme

Title: Teagasc – Certificate in Horticulture

Duration: 1 year full-time programme

Programme: Students must have attended a Teagasc Horticultural College – Kildalton College, Warrenstown or National Botanic Gardens. This original Certificate in Horticulture programme was more extensive than the current FETAC Award in horticulture 5M2586.

Title: Teagasc – Advanced Certificate in Hortitculture

Duration: An add on year to the Certificate in Horticulture

Programme: Students must have attended a Teagasc Horticultural College – Kildalton College, Warrenstown or National Botanic Gardens. 6.

Title: ACOT/Teagasc/FETAC Diploma in Horticulture

Duration: 3 year programme

Programme: Students must have attended an ACOT or Teagasc Horticultural programme

Title: Dept of Agriculture/ACOT Senior Certificate in Horticulture

Duration: 2 years

Programme: Department of Agriculture / ACOT Horticulture programme

Other horticultural qualifications, which meet or exceed the above standards e.g. the BSc. in Horticulture will be accepted and others such as those from Greenmount College NI or other UK, European Horticultural colleges, or foreign institutions will be considered and evaluated by SETU Waterford as to their appropriateness.

Progression, Employment, Transfer of Certificate Graduates

Students who subsequently choose to apply and enter into Year 1 of the BSc in Horticulture will receive exemptions for modules they have successfully passed at the appropriate year. 

Students who wish to enter the BSc in Horticulture as transfer students into either Year 2 or Year 3 must meet the entry requirements as set out in the existing established transfer mechanism. Exemptions for modules students have successfully completed will be granted. Students wishing to transfer into Year 3, an award year, will be advised as to the appropriateness of accepting a record of educational achievement rather than a certificate.

These minor awards offer structured continuous professional development opportunities to those already working in the industry.