Otley College

Battle of the Lands!

 

Two students from Otley College came equal first in a national landscape gardening competition.

 

The news means that they could now travel to Canada to represent the UK in an event entitled WorldSkills.

 

Otley students - Simon Ginger and William Gadd - travelled to Windsor racecourse on September 4th 08, where they competed in a three-day garden design competition.

 

(To reach Windsor, they had already taken part (and won) a regional heat that saw them compete against colleges from the Eastern region earlier in the year).

 

During the Windsor based gardening marathon, Ginger and Gadd (who previously scooped a gold medal at this years Suffolk Show), worked for 22 hours over three days in a bid to woo judges with their garden design expertise.

 

And in the ‘toughest garden build of any WorldSkills final ever’ according to Peter Killen, a representative from the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI), the work of the Suffolk based learners was judged equal first, as they shared the spoils with Chichester College.

 

Both sets of winners will now go on to take part in a landscaping ‘boot camp’ that will prepare them to compete against other landscape gardeners from across the globe at the WorldSkills competition that takes place in Calgary, Canada in 2009.

 

“We were delighted to win our regional heat, so to scoop top honours in the National competition is incredibly satisfying,” said Simon Ginger, who also recently received an award at Otley College’s annual Prizegiving ceremony.

 

“It was a really challenging design for us, incorporating water and an overhanging deck so we are pleased to have won,” he added.

 

Aside from the boot camp, the two learners are just about to begin a Foundation Degree in Landscape and Garden Design at Otley.

 

Otley Lecturer, Ken Higginbotham, added, “This is unbelievable news for the college and I am incredibly proud of Simon and William. They have always been committed students and their hard work has paid off ‘big time’ by winning this competition.”

 

Otley still has a few places available on further and higher educational garden design programmes. For more details, please call Barbara Pantry on 01473 784176 or email barbara.pantry@otleycollege.ac.uk