Streetscape are recruiting: Maintenance Team Leader & Trainer

JOB DESCRIPTION: Maintenance Team Leader & Trainer

Streetscape is an award-winning social enterprise that provides apprenticeships in landscape gardening to young people who are long-term unemployed, enabling them to build the skills, experience and attributes they need to move into and retain work: growing lives, transforming landscapes.

To do so we design, landscape and maintain gardens across South London to the highest standards for residential and commercial clients, exemplified by our Silver-Gilt winning build of ‘The Perennial Garden’ at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2014.

Job title: Maintenance Team Leader & Trainer
Reports to: Head Landscaper
Direct reports: 2/3 no. Apprentices
Key liaison with:
• Chief Executive
• Business Development Executive
• Senior Landscaper

Job location: London (based at Myatt’s Fields Park, SE5 9RA)

Pay band: £23,000 – £27,000 d.o.e.

Contract length: Permanent (with 6-month probation period)

Working requirements:

• Monday – Friday, 7.30am-4pm.
• A minimum of 20 days leave p.a., plus bank holidays, with a commitment from you to taking no more than two day’s consecutive leave in the first month of any large apprenticeship intake.

Job purpose:

• Lead and provide high-calibre on-the-job and off-site training to
our apprentices (2-3 apprentices will be apprenticed to you f/t)
• Provide an unrivalled garden/grounds maintenance & soft landscape service to our clients
• Support continuous improvement in the quality of our apprenticeships and service offering.

Core objectives:

• To oversee behavioural and technical improvement in apprentices apprenticed to you; to train them to the highest possible standards of workmanship and customer service, such that they complete the apprenticeship in a year and then move into employment after this.
• To produce the highest standards of work and customer service, on time and to budget. This is monitored by peer review and client feedback.
• To help Streetscape continually improve the quality of our apprenticeships and service offering, such that we become the leading apprenticeship provider in the industry and continue to increase the number of young people we provide opportunities to.

Main duties & responsibilities:

Training Streetscape’s apprentices

• Providing high-calibre onsite training to our apprentices, in line with the apprenticeship syllabus requirements and industry standards. (Our teams work onsite 8.5 out of 10 working days a fortnight, with the remainder of training taking place offsite.)
• Line management and coaching of apprentices, including conducting performance reviews and appraisals, setting development goals, liaison with KEITS assessor, dealing with disciplinary issues and playing a key part in their transition to future employment.
• Planning and delivering classroom-based and offsite training to our apprentices in areas of your particular expertise approx. once a month, to cover the theory side of the apprenticeship syllabus.

Landscaping

• Leading your team of apprentices to provide an unrivalled garden/grounds maintenance & soft landscape service to our clients in terms of standards of work and customer service.
• Delivering all soft landscape projects/maintenance rounds on- time and to budget.
• Onsite Health & Safety and First Aid.
• Keeping up-to-date timesheets and maintenance logs for all projects.
• Maintaining your tools, van and the Streetscape yard and container in excellent condition at all times.
• Helping to run the Greenhouse Club day on the 1st Sunday of the month (AM) at Myatt’s Fields Park, at least twice a year.

Streetscape growth & expansion

Contributing to the ongoing development of Streetscape, including:
• Where required, assisting the Head Landscaper with the recruitment, induction and training of future teams of apprentices.
• Attending Quarterly Strategy Meetings and putting forward your ideas to continually improve the quality of Streetscape’s apprenticeships, service offering and systems and processes.
• Working with the Head Landscaper on agreed projects to improve the standards of our apprenticeships and service offering in particular areas of expertise.
• Where required, advising the Head Landscaper/Business Development Executive in preparing tenders for large maintenance contracts, in areas of particular expertise.

Person specification:

• A strong and unyielding commitment to the aims and ethos of Streetscape. In particular, a steadfast enthusiasm for the training of our apprentices – all young people previously long-term unemployed, often from difficult backgrounds – to the highest standards.
• A minimum of three years’ experience leading horticultural/garden/grounds maintenance/soft landscape teams, committed to onsite work for min. 5 years.
• A deep knowledge of horticulture, with training to L3 standard or above. Previous teaching experience in the field is desirable.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Self-motivation with ability and willingness to use your own initiative to prioritise a busy workload; take on new projects and responsibilities; to learn as well as teach; to be flexible and adapt to new working methods as necessary.
• A keen desire to please our clients in the work you do, through strong work ethic, a keen eye to detail and providing excellent customer service.
• PA1/PA6 spraying licence & ride-on mower licences are desirable, but not essential.
• Basic hard landscape skills are desirable, but not essential.
• IT literacy (MS Word, Excel, internet usage) and good literacy and numeracy are essential.
• A full UK driving licence and permission to work in the UK are essential.