The NALP Foundation recently organized the first-ever World of Landscape series, as part of Nepris’s World of Work, which took place Oct. 4-8. The World of Landscape series is a condensed week of presentations that are advertised to educators.
During this week, 11 presentations on different landscape industry careers were shared through the Nepris platform. Nepris is a web-based system that connects educators and learners with a network of lawn and landscape industry professionals, virtually, bringing real-world relevance and career exposure to students.
“The platform allows us to reach so many students in a way that we have never had before,” says Nicole Belhumeur, HR manager with Bartlett Tree Experts. Belhumeur hosted a session on careers in arboriculture during the World of Landscape series.
Students who attended the virtual World of Landscape event were able to learn about careers such as lawn care technicians and arborists. The most attended session was “How to Create a Landscape Design Plan” with 61 students.
The NALP Foundation will hold these World of Landscape series in the fall and the spring, but those in the lawn care and landscape industry can conduct presentations anytime through the school year. Topics are created by the presenter. Landscape and lawn care professionals can share their expertise and work experience with students to build career awareness of the industry.
“It’s all about showing students careers in general,” says Pam Moore, director of foundation operations for NALP. “We want the students to get excited about the industry. We’re trying to show them there are all kinds of professional jobs. There’s accounting, there’s also business owners and managers, team leaders, scientists and so much more. There are just so many different opportunities in the industry than they can think of.”
Moore encourages all people in the industry to share their stories, no matter what they do in the business. The Nepris platform is free to all users. Lawn and landscape professionals, sister non-profit associations, college educators, suppliers, manufacturers are all welcome to present.
Most sessions should be only 30 minutes, with a 25-minute presentation and a 5-minute Q&A with the students. The presentation is held live and recorded. It then lives in the Nepris library where teachers can search for and share previously recorded presentations.
Presenters can see how many students they’ve reached with their individual presentations, both from the live and recorded version. NALP Foundation can also track the total amount of students reached through all the presentations.
“It is a unique opportunity to get into the classroom and in front of students about careers in the industry,” Moore says. “And a great way to get young people excited about the wonderful environments our industry creates.”
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