Training Manual Aims at Installation

The first in a trio of landscape training manuals is now available.

Titled Landscape Training Manual for Installation Technicians, the freshly released text represents a collaborative effort. The Associated Landscape Contractors of America and the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado joined forces to create the manual, which features the input and experience of several well-known landscape companies and industry leaders nationwide.

Leading landscape companies from the United States and Canada worked for more than two years to produce manuals that include everything employees need to know about installation, maintenance and irrigation. This first manual focuses on landscape installation, with the next two tackling maintenance and irrigation issues.

By creating and circulating these manuals, ALCA hopes to help strengthen professionalism within the industry through education, acknowledged Laurie Saunders, director of marketing and communications, ALCA.

“We believe these books are a ‘first’ in offering basic training that emphasizes solid landscape industry know-how and safe operating guidelines,” she commented. “Safety is such a big issue in our industry and safety is definitely the underpinning of these manuals.”

Originally, the manuals were intended as a study guide for candidates in the Certified Landscape Technician (CLT) program, Saunders explained.

“But we realized that the ‘basic training’ was beneficial for general employee training whether or not the individual was currently in the certification process or not,” she described. “Basic training is basic training – anyone at the field technician level can benefit from the range of practical industry information that is contained in each manual.”

Given the current shortage of skilled labor, landscape companies are finding it harder and harder to hire workers who are skilled in the technical know-how they need on the job. Managers and supervisors must train workers themselves.

Addressing the frustrations associated with these industry trends, the new landscape training manuals are designed as a comprehensive resource to help landscape companies train their employees at the foreman or lead-man level. Filled with detailed tables, charts, landscape drawings and photographs, the publications offer companies an all-new training resource that can improve field performance.

The first manual in this series, titled Landscape Training Manual for Installation Technicians, shares insightful information about plan reading, instrument use, grading and drainage, hardscapes, specialty features, plant installation, edging, soil/seed/sod work and equipment operation. The two other manuals in the three-part series will be released soon:

So far, the industry has embraced this new approach to training, Saunders noted.

“The response has been excellent as evidenced by the sponsorship from major industry manufacturers,” she shared, noting that Caterpillar sponsored the installation manual, Cub Cadet sponsored the maintenance manual, and Hunter sponsored the irrigation manual. “The industry has really been waiting for employee training that can be used coast-to-coast throughout North America. Some companies do have their own in-house training, but many companies have no training resource. This manual can fill that void – or compliment what companies have already developed on their own.”

The author is Assistant Editor-Internet of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at aanderson@lawnandlandscape.com.