Qualification - Proficiency Award in Horticulture

COURSE STRUCTURE

A Proficiency Award requires the completion of 3 modules and demonstration of 200 hours work experience.

THE MODULES

 This comprises a set syllabus consisting generally around 30 lessons that relate to a particular specialist theme. A Proficiency Award allows you to study subjects in a highly specialised area. You select and study three short courses of your own choice, which relate to each other (eg. Three crops or three landscaping short courses). In addition, you must complete 200 hrs of approved work experience before receiving the award. Approval of course structure must be obtained before enrolling.

You may choose your 3 modules from any three offered in our horticulture programs. They must however be each of 100 hr duration; and each needs to be with a course code starting with V or B (Note: Codes that start with "A" are considered only appropriate for adult/hobby education)

For all the modules available in horticulture please visit http://www.acsedu.com/courses/horti.aspx

Your choice must also be approved by a member of the academic staff.

PROJECT

This is the final requirement that you must satisfy before receiving your award. There are various options available to you to satisfy this requirement, including the following:

Option 1.

If you work in a relevant industry situation (related to the modules taken) that you have been studying; you may submit a reference from your employer, in an effort to satisfy this industry (ie. workplace project) requirement; on the basis of RPL (ie. recognition for prior learning), achieved through your current and past work experience.

The reference must indicate that you have skills and an awareness of your industry, which is sufficient for you to work in a position of responsibility.

Option 2.

Workplace Projects I and II. These each involve a series of 3 Problem Based Learning projects. With problem-based learning, students are assessed on their ability to go through a problem solving process.

Research shows that PBL gives the learner greater long-term benefits than traditional learning, and many successful and progressive universities around the world use it in their courses. Graduates of PBL courses advance faster and further in their careers.

• Other benefits of PBL:
• Develops critical and creative thinking;
• Creates effective problem-solvers;
• Increases motivation;
• Encourages lateral thinking;
• Improves communication and networking skills;
• Is based on real-life situations.

Option 3.

If you do not work in the relevant industry, another option is to undertake a project as follows.

Procedure for a Workplace Project

This project is a major part of the course involving the number of hours relevant to the course (see above). Although the course does not contain mandatory work requirements, work experience is seen as highly desirable.

This project is based on applications in the work place and specifically aims to provide the student with the opportunity to apply and integrate skills and knowledge developed through various areas of formal study.

Students will design this project in consultation with a tutor to involve industry based activities in the area of specialized study which they select to follow in the course. The project outcomes may take the form of a written report, folio, visuals or a mixture of forms. Participants with relevant, current or past work experience will be given exemption from this project if they can provide suitable references from employers that show they have already fulfilled the requirements of this project.

Students will be assessed on how well they achieve the goals and outcomes they originally set as part of their negotiations with their tutor. During each project, the students will present three short progress reports. These progress reports will be taken into account when evaluating the final submission. The tutor must be satisfied that the work submitted is original.

ACS follows the old fashioned idea that “the student comes first”. Our staff are told to treat every student as an individual and respond promptly to their enquiries; and the facilities we have developed and continue to develop, are all focused on that goal. Facilities include:

• Offices in two time zones (UK and Australia) –which means an international team of academics are responding to students 5 days a week and 16 hours a day.
• An online student room with unique resources that are only available to students studying our courses, including online library.
• Bookshop offering quality downloadable e books
• A data base of 20 million words of unique information written by our staff over 3 decades that can be drawn upon if needed by academics for use in supporting our students.
• Systems that ensure assignments are tracked, marked and returned to students, fast -commonly within a round 1 week & rarely more than 2 weeks (note: many other colleges take longer).
• The school is active in social networking and encourages students to connect with us and each other.
• No automated handling of student phone enquiries. When you call you get a real person; or leave a message and a real person will call you back within a day, but more commonly within an hour or two.
• No additional charges for extra tutor support over the phone or email.
• Free careers advice for graduates –It is our policy to provide support and advice to our students even after they graduate. If a graduate needs help with getting a CV together, or advice on setting up a business or looking for work; they only need ask.
• The quality of academic staff is higher than many other colleges.

 How our Courses Differ

• Courses are continually improved –we invite feedback from all graduates and change courses immediately the need is detected.
• Courses are relevant to the whole world –we try hard to teach make the learning transferable to any region or country because the world is increasingly a global economy
• Courses written by our staff, teach different skills to standard courses; giving a unique mix of skills and knowledge to provide a career advantage. Do you want an accredited certificate and the same skills as 100 other job applicants; or one of our courses with skills that no other applicants have?
• Certificates and diplomas are longer. They teach you more, and our qualifications have built a reputation amongst academics and industry as being a very high standard for this reason.
• We are focused on helping you learn in a way that improves your capacity to understand your discipline, apply knowledge, and continue learning and developing your capabilities beyond your course.

These things cannot be always said of other colleges.

Career Opportunities

Study alone can never guarantee career success; but a good education is an important starting point.

Success in a career depends upon many things. A course like this is an excellent starting point because it provides a foundation for continued learning, and the means of understanding and dealing with issues you encounter in the workplace.

When you have completed an ACS course, you will have not only learnt about the subject, but you will have been prompted to start networking with experts in the discipline and shown how to approach problems that confront you in this field.

This and every other industry in today’s world is developing in unforeseen ways; and while that is unsettling for anyone who wants to be guaranteed a particular job at the end of a particular course; for others, this rapidly changing career environment is offering new and exciting opportunities almost every month.

If you want to do the best that you can in this industry, you need to recognise that the opportunities that confront you at the end of a course, are probably different to anything that has even been thought of when you commence a course.

BOOKS

Visit our School bookshop at www.acsebook.com

• Downloadable ebooks that can be read on ipads, PC’s, Laptops, or readers like a Kindle.
• Titles are written by our principal and staff.
• Anyone can purchase books –ACS students are offered a student discount