VIU’s 9-month Horticulture Technician Foundation Program prepares students for a broad range of jobs in the horticulture field, from landscaping and landscape design, to nursery work and greenhouse production, to management positions.

The program is taught at the G.R. Paine Horticultural Centre, a 32-acre site close to VIU’s Nanaimo campus at which students grow bedding plants, ornamental nursery materials, native plants and forest seedlings. Students also work at Milner Gardens and Woodland, a 70-acre estate in Qualicum Beach with an established seaside garden that is open to the public. About 50% of this program is hands-on training, including three months of paid work in the industry. Graduates of the program are granted credit for 500 hours of work-based training towards the 6,400-hour requirement for a Red Seal in Landscape Horticulture and may complete their training at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley.