Green shoots of success

SUFFOLK: A teenager with a creative flare who has just embarked on a floristry apprenticeship is already realising the benefits of hands-on learning.

“I am getting to practice what I learnt at college every day,” said Yasmin Reeve, 18. “Each day in the shop I take orders over the phone and help make them up as well as making bouquets for the shop floor.”

Yasmin is the latest backer of our 100 in 100 apprenticeship campaign, launching Monday.

She said: “I work at the florists five days a week and then once a month I attend a masterclass at Otley College. At the last one we learnt to make button holes and I have been practicing constantly – today I made a corsage.”

The teenager, of Wortham, near Eye, will spend the next 18 months working alongside the team at Mille Fleurs, in Eye, learning the art of flower arranging as well as the basics of running a business.

“Originally I wanted to be a paramedic and I spent a year doing a health course at Norwich City College but it wasn’t for me,” said Yasmin. “I prefer floristry because it is very artistic and creative and I am more suited to on-the-job training than sitting in a classroom and learning from books.

“I think it comes to me naturally because I am picking it up really quickly.”

Yasmin is working towards a level 2 diploma and once she is qualified hopes to continue at the shop.

Explaining that she is not the only one to benefit, Yasmin added: “You get a much more rounded knowledge by learning like this, whereas if you go straight in from college you won’t have had experience of answering the phoning and interacting with customers.”

For more information visit www.apprenticeships.org.uk.

n Do you have a success story to share? Call the newsdesk on 01473 324736 or e-mail to starletters@eveningstar.co.uk.