Alan Titchmarsh: Will youngsters look up to Chelsea Flower Show?

This is Somerset -- *Celebrity and industry's own faults undermine Chelsea's future, warns Alan Titchmarsh... * Thanks to its location in the grounds of Sir Christopher Wren's magnificent Royal Hospital, and to the matchless standard of growing and garden design skills, this year the RHS Chelsea Flower Show celebrates its centenary. Visitors to this year's event will no doubt have happy memories but how many, or their friends, sons, daughters, grandsons or granddaughters, will consider horticulture as a career? Because if more young people do not then, in the next 20 years, Chelsea Flower Show as we know it could cease to exist. A survey of 1,000 people last year revealed that 70 per cent of 18-year-olds believe careers in horticulture should only be considered by people who have "failed academically", and nearly half of under-25s think it an unskilled career – despite the skills, the spectacle and the expertise that is there for all to see. This is a generation brought up on The X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent; on I'm a Celebrity and Big Brother. Their aspirations are governed by what they perceive as "cool", and their role models are the people who are seized upon and lauded by the media – Gwynneth Paltrow and One Direction, Victoria Beckham and Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench and Justin Bieber – people to cover all kinds of aspiration, from the inadvisable to the cerebral. But you say that not all young people want to become celebrities. Even fewer will actually achieve that goal. Fair enough; those who don't will probably become lawyers, or teachers, or office workers, or bankers. But they are unlikely to even glance in the direction of horticulture. Why? To some extent because careers advisers never even think of it. And why do they never even think of it? Because we, as an industry, are rotten at PR. We have the best jobs in the world – growing plants, designing gardens, managing open spaces, feeding the population, looking after historic trees and famous gardens, conducting scientific research into plant breeding, pests and diseases, collecting plants in far-flung parts of the globe, writing and broadcasting about our passion. Oh, there are times, I admit, when the job is a bit uncomfortable, but what would you rather do – gaze at a computer screen all day or do a job that can really change lives; one that involves creativity and mental stimulation, and one which will give you lashings of fresh air and a healthy tan? There is much to learn and, as anyone who has been involved with horticulture will tell you, it can be tremendously challenging. And yet our role is undervalued by Government, by the population and by young people in particular – in every instance because they just do not understand the breadth of what we do and its importance. Recent findings, which form part of Horticulture Matters – a report the industry will present to Government on May 14 – highlights the extent of the skills shortage in UK horticulture. Some 200 horticultural businesses were surveyed and over 70 per cent of them said they can't fill skilled vacancies. And 90 per cent said horticulture lacks career appeal. If this situation continues, British horticulture will dwindle and become a pale shadow of its former self, and Chelsea Flower Show little more than a wistful memory. The Centenary of Chelsea Flower Show gives us an opportunity that is not to be wasted. A chance to demonstrate that those of us involved in horticulture are not thick, or dull, or unadventurous or simply incapable of doing anything else. The Chelsea Centenary Appeal is a one-year RHS fund-raising campaign primarily to help engage young people with horticulture. We aim to raise a million pounds "to save the horticulturist". Learning centres at RHS gardens at Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor in Devon, and Harlow Car in Yorkshire host more than 40,000 children on school visits every year. The RHS aims to create 15 apprenticeships in the next three years. Today the RHS Campaign for School Gardening supports well over half of all UK schools – around 16,800 of them. RHS advisors last year helped equip 2,100 teachers with gardening knowledge. This must continue now that Government has agreed that gardening should be a part of the national curriculum for key stages 1 to 3. We must not squander this opportunity. It's only gardening to some. But to those of us in the know, it is a window on the wider world. It's time we reconnected them with apples rather than Apple Macs, plant cells rather than cell phones and raspberries as well as Blackberries. Only by handing on our skills and our enthusiasm and by firing their imaginations can we be sure that the Chelsea Flower Show will continue to thrive and that horticulture and the nation's landscape will be in safe hands. Reported by This is 1 minute ago. ~Chelsea Headlines on One News Page [United Kingdom]~