The B.C. landscaping and nursery industry has recognized a Burnaby school district educator for a flourishing adult-education horticulture program.
When Karen Flynn first stepped into the role of program coordinator for community and continuing education in 1988, the only thing adult learners could sign up for in terms of horticulture was a couple of general-interest, home-gardening classes.
Under Flynn’s watch, the program has expanded to include certificate, diploma and apprenticeship programs that land students jobs in the industry.
Last month, the semi-retired programmer’s efforts were recognized with an educator of the year award from the B.C. Landscape and Nursery Association.
“It was a nice surprise,” Flynn told the NOW.
It all started with the residential landscape technician program 18 years ago, she said.
A landscaper she knew had approached her, complaining about the state of the landscaping industry that was seeing untrained “landscapers” ruining trees, misusing pesticides and burning lawns with fertilizer.
“In most industries, there’s something overseeing the industry,” Flynn said. “If you want to call yourself an arborist, you have to be a member of the International Society of Arboriculture and there’s an exam. But anybody can call themselves a landscaper, anybody with a pickup truck and a lawnmower.”
To fill the gap, Burnaby continuing ed developed a diploma program.
Two years ago, the district added an apprenticeship program (the only one in the Lower Mainland besides Kwantlen in Langley) that allows adults working in the industry to earn journeyperson certification and get higher paying jobs at municipal parks departments, golf courses, cemeteries and the like.
The third round of classes started this month with 19 of 20 seats filled.
Other programs that have sprouted under Flynn’s leadership include the Growing Food in the City Certificate, the Organic Master Gardener Certificate and courses to prepare would-be arborists for their exam.
“We started with one program, and it’s just developed into a whole series of programs now,” she said.
Since she started with continuing ed, Flynn said there has been a shift from general-interest courses to more career training.
She said adult education in the Burnaby district has survived (unlike the recently cut programs in Vancouver and New Westminster) largely because senior administrators and the board have supported her department’s innovative efforts.
“If you’re doing a good job, they let you go with it,” Flynn said.
Once in charge of all the district’s adult general-interest and vocational programs, Flynn now comes into the office just once a week to work on a few pet subjects, like horticulture.
Her newest project is a 16-session certificate course in urban permaculture – an approach to growing food that tries to imitate natural ecosystems instead of destroying them. She hopes the program will be ready to launch in January 2016.
“You do it ’cause you love it,” Flynn said of her ongoing work with the district, “and I love organic horticulture.”
For more information on the Burnaby school district’s continuing education programs, visit www.burnabycce.ca or call 604-296-6901.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter, @CorNaylor
