UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Extension recently expanded its library of online landscape workforce training courses and is offering newly available bulk pricing to landscape and nursery professionals.
Two new recently launched courses — “Plant Identification and Usage: Herbaceous Perennials” and “Plant Identification and Usage: Bulbs and Other Geophytes” — brings the library of online courses to 29.
Designed to address the landscape industry’s workforce training needs, the courses include instruction in pruning trees and shrubs, plant biology and taxonomy, and pest and disease management, among other areas.
Business owners can register employees to take the online training as part of their new-hire onboarding process or for professional development.
“The landscape training videos are really good,” said Ted Ventre, owner of Hively Landscapes in Dover and board member of the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association. “We’ve seen improvements in our crew’s work. We can tell the difference between the work of the crews that have completed the trainings and the crews that haven’t done the training yet.”
The courses are self-paced and use educational videos, images, short readings and knowledge-check questions. Registrants can access a course for 365 days from the date the course is started. Many courses provide opportunities to earn Pennsylvania pesticide applicator recertification credits or Pennsylvania certified horticulturist continuing education credits.
Penn State Extension currently offers reduced pricing for its entire suite of online landscape workforce training courses, which includes all entry-level employee landscape training courses and all intermediate-level landscape workforce development courses. Courses are priced between $19 and $59, and bulk pricing is also available for companies who wish to purchase group registrations for specific courses.
For example, if a company registers 10 employees, they will receive a 10% discount for each registrant. The discount increases as the number of registrants increase. The highest discount of 25% is offered with a bulk registration of 75 registrants.
In November and December, Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association members will receive an additional 35% discount on all course registrations purchased.
“I cannot say enough good things about the video content and production; they are a very useful tool to have in our training toolbox,” Ventre said.
These courses were developed with support from the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association.
More information about the online courses is available on the Penn State Extension website.