Horticultural Apprentice

At Whitehorse City Council, community is at the heart of everything we do. We aspire to be a healthy, vibrant, prosperous, and sustainable community. We enable this through strong leadership and community partnerships.

We strive to stay ahead of the evolving changes and needs of our community.

Our five key principles (refer below) empower our employees to be innovative and to provide and excellent customer experience. We are a resilient organisation where everyone belongs:

- Excellent Customer Experience and Service Delivery
- Great Organisational Culture
- Innovation and Continuous Improvement
- Good Governance and Integrity

Long Term Financial Sustainability

**The Team**

The Parks and Natural Environment Team at Whitehorse City Council maintains over 450 public open space sites including parks, sports fields, and bushland, as well as all the trees in the area.

We take pride in the work that we do, understand the impact we have on the community, and enjoy sharing knowledge with our apprentices and the newer members of our team.

**The Opportunity**

Our Apprenticeship program is a great entry into a career in any Horticulture profession.

The program is structured so that Apprentices rotate through different areas and can learn extensive and diverse horticultural skills across a range of sites. Apprentices contribute to maintaining parks, sports fields, bushland and trees using a variety of machinery and equipment. Apprentices work in a team and gain valuable experience in landscaping, conservation, construction, maintenance, and machinery through working in many different horticultural and natural areas across the municipality including Whitehorse’s own award-winning Indigenous Nursery.

We currently have three Apprentice vacancies on offer in the areas of Horticulture, Sportsfields and Arboriculture.

**Responsibilities will include (but not be limited to)**:

- Undertaking a variety of tasks including pruning, lawn and garden bed maintenance, litter and waste removal
- Assisting the wider Parks and Natural Environment Team on a rotation basis
- Collaborating and working across multiple teams to ensure services are delivered in a timely and seamless manner across all Council sites.
- Providing outstanding levels of customer service when interacting with members of the public, answering queries and sharing informationActively participating as a member of the team, attending team meetings, participating in team events, sharing feedback

**The Person**

To be successful in securing one of these roles, we are looking for the following:

- A passion for horticulture and a desire to work outdoors
- An openness to learning from others in the team
- A strong work ethic balanced with a positive attitude
- A person who takes enormous pride in their work and is open to feedback
- You will need a Victorian Drivers License to secure this role (or be getting one in the not too distant future)

**Why work with us?**

**The ability to make a difference -**Working at Whitehorse City Council you contribute to making a real difference in the lives of the community and those that live, learn, work or visit Whitehorse. Every day you really will see how the work you're involved in benefits the diverse community.

**Great working conditions**- a professional environment, friendly and supportive teams and a flexibility program that promotes employee work life balance.

**An extensive Health and Wellbeing offering**- Employee assistance program, private health insurance benefits, health checks (skin, hearing and vaccinations), discounted gym membership and facilities (e.g. Theatre, Arts, Leisure) and an active health and wellness program (e.g. stretching, healthy eating demonstrations and health challenges.

**Transformation**:

- We are in a time of transformation to stay ahead of the evolving changes and needs of our community. Together, we are on an exciting journey to empower all of our employees to be innovative, and constantly strive towards continuous improvement.

**Reward & Recognition -**extensive reward and recognition program, corporate learning offerings, study assistance and comprehensive leadership development programs.

**Next steps**

Please register your interested in the program via the link below:
Whitehorse City Council Apprenticeship Program | Your Say Whitehorse

**Next steps**

For Further information please contact Justin Quinn on 9262 6260.

**_Download the Position Description: _**

Apprentice
- City of Whitehorse is a culturally and linguistically diverse community. We are proud of the diversity of our workforce and recognise the strength this provides in meeting the needs of our community. We are committed to upholding a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace that values the contribution of all. _
- Whitehorse City Council is committed to being a child safe organisation. We recognise our responsibilities to keep children and young people safe from harm and have established policies, procedur