Green Futures- Flower Farmer : Grower and Florist Intern

Key Information

Job title Flower Farmer: Grower and Florist Intern Application Deadline Rolling deadline, accepting applications until midday Friday 16th April 2025 Interview Date 21-25th April 2025 TBC Salary £12.50 per hour (Living Wage) Contract Length 16 weeks Start Date April/ May 2025 Location Buckingham Flower Farm, Manor Farm, Buckingham. MK18 7DS

A 16-week paid placement in an active team at Buckingham Flower Farm in Buckingham- Buckinghamshire. Buckingham Flower Farm is within a very short and beautiful walk from Buckingham Town Centre. Next to The Larder Cafe, Butchery and Cheese room and surrounded by sheep, cows and pigs, it’s a perfect spot for someone interested in floristry; as well as the workings of a flower farm.

Are you:

Aged 18-24 years old?

Someone who enjoys a challenge and loves being active?

Somebody who enjoys being outdoors and around flowers.

Feeling like you want to explore more work place opportunities to help you decide where to progress next?

Feedback are collaborating with the Buckingham Flower Farm to provide a paid work placement as a Flower Farmer: Grower and Florist Intern over 16 weeks, 21 hours a week.

Feedback has been funded by the Rothschild Foundation to support organisations to better connect local young people to the green economy. We aim to do this by creating new local career pathways into the Green Economy for young people from minority groups, challenging or disadvantaged backgrounds.

How to apply Apply Here

About the job

Purpose of the position

Assistant Flower Farmer. You will learn all aspects of flower farming from preparing the soil, sowing seeds, pricking out, planting, harvesting, arranging and selling. You will also learn how to plan and succession sow to ensure a continuous supply of flower for the full growing year. This is a great opportunity to understand all aspects of growing a crop and your input will be essential in helping the farm run this season. Hopefully you will find a passion for growing and this internship can be a stepping stone for your future endeavors.

Scope of job

General gardening to specialised seed sowing and growing. Floristry tasks can be undertaken too if this is where your passion lies. Here on the farm, every day is different and tasks are so varied you are bound to find some tasks a chore and some incredibly fulfilling.

It doesn’t matter if you are an introvert, an extrovert, a keen gardener or never put your hands in the soil before. All I ask is that you really want to be here and that you are open to accepting a task or a challenge. I can give you all the instruction and help that you need to succeed at growing flowers and hopefully you’ll find your passion too. Surrounding the farm there are pigs, sheep, cows, chickens, ducks cats and dogs so an animal lovers would really appreciate our setting.

The role will be working outdoors for the majority of the time.

In addition to working with your host organisation, you will spend a proportion of your time working with other young people, receiving additional training and development with Feedback and external facilitators. This time will be spent learning more about the environmental and ecological crisis and how it relates to the food system; it will also include elements of activism training, employability skills workshops, leadership & project management training and bespoke support based on your professional and personal development. You will also access 1:1 additional support and mentoring to guide you through the process.

Who we are looking for:

Good written and oral communication skills.
Numeracy skills.
Confident, creative, enthusiastic, and self-motivated with a great work ethic.
Excellent customer service skills, demonstrating a confidence with members of the public.
Team player with a demonstrable positive, ‘can do’ attitude and ability to work in a team.
Passionate about environmental sustainability.
Interest in food growing and horticulture.
Ability to work with all generations, including schools groups and community members
Be enthusiastic, hardworking and keen to learn!

Eligibility:

In order for your application to be considered, you need to fulfil the following eligibility criteria:

You must be aged 18-24 years old
You must be legally entitled to work in the UK
You must not currently be enrolled on a higher education degree (undergraduate or postgraduate).

PLEASE NOTE: Green Futures placements are designed to assist those who have experienced barriers to entry in to the environmental and community food sectors. As such, we will prioritise candidates who do not have undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications. We still encourage you to apply If you have an undergraduate or postgraduate degree.

TRAVEL TO WORK: We recognise that travelling to your placement via public transport may present challenges. We are committed to ensuring that travelling to placements will not be a barrier for people, and are happy to discuss ways to make this work. You may be able to access a bursary scheme to support the purchase of a bicycle or other low carbon methods of travel to work. This placement is able to be accessed by foot from Buckingham, which has good bus links to Milton Keynes, Bicester, Winslow and Aylesbury.

Inclusivity

These placements are open to everyone, regardless of experience or background. We acknowledge that the environmental sector is less open to young people from under-represented backgrounds and we’re committed to doing what we can to correct this. We especially want to hear from you if you feel that opportunities like this are less available to you, or if you feel overlooked by mainstream institutions.

No previous experience in the environmental sector is necessary. We encourage applications from:

People who are passionate about affecting positive change and want to take action to tackle climate change but have not had relevant work or education experience, such as studying a relevant subject at college or university.
People who want to try their hand at something new, but don’t know where to start, or haven’t had the opportunity to do so
People who have studied a relevant subject at university but have not been able to secure paid employment in that sector within a year of graduating.
People who are interested in training in practical food delivery (cooking, growing or distribution) with a sustainable, community or ecological focus but have little or no previous professional experience.

Host Organisation – About us

Working with Jess and her small team, you will be involved in all aspects of the flower farm. Preparing and selling cut flower bunches and bouquets for sale.

Jess also runs Floral workshops from the Flower Barn. Pick Your Own flower events also run throughout the year. Field tours and group visits are also common during the summer months.

Position in organisation

The successful applicant will work alongside other team members, and report to the Farm Owner.

https://buckinghamflowerfarm.co.uk/

How to apply

Please fill in the below application form to apply. You may answer the following questions either in writing or by uploading a video/audio file to the form, answering the following questions:

Tell us about yourself
Why do you care about people’s ability to access healthy, culturally appropriate and sustainable food?
Why do you want to work at Buckingham Flower farm?
Please tell us about any connection to the local area.
Can you tell us about barriers you feel you face in securing employment? If you were offered the role, what would you want to prove to the world, and yourself? This might be as a result of your own confidence, or you might feel it’s down to wider problems like discrimination.

You do not need to send a CV.

If you have any questions relating to the role itself and your time with the Flower farm, please contact Jess – hello@buckinghamflowerfarm.co.uk

If you have any questions about Feedback’s Green Futures programme or your time with Feedback please contact Rebecca Nutley on Rebecca@feedbackglobal.org 07763896398

Apply Now

About Foodrise

Foodrise is a charity transforming the food system for climate, nature and justice.

Food production is the single greatest impact humans have on the environment. From mountains of food waste, to habitat destruction to clear land to grow animal feed for factory farms, to soil depletion leaving future harvests at risk: the food system needs to change.

Founded in 2013, we take bold action to uncover the root causes of injustice in our food system and expose how corporate power exploits people and the planet — while building truly just and sustainable alternatives from the ground-up. Read more about our story.

Foodrise is being supported by The Rothschild Foundation until 2026 to offer three paid internship placements with environmental and community food organisations. Each placement lasts around 16 weeks and is paid at the Real Living Wage. These placements have been designed to create new local career pathways into the Green Economy for young people from minority groups, challenging or disadvantaged backgrounds.