Our career courses at Flourish Sussex have been designed to reach the highest standard of floristry. We want everyone to build a sustainable and profitable floristry business which fits around their home life. We understand that embarking on a new career can be very exciting, mixed in with feeling overwhelmed at times. Whatever type of business you want to create, whether it’s full time, part time, making wreaths for friends, we want to help you turn your dream into a reality.
At Flourish Sussex we have trained hundreds of students who have gone onto set up their own thriving and successful businesses. We are so proud of what our students have gone onto accomplish and rest assured many of them were nervous and had feelings of self doubt when they started. We believe that once you attend Flourish Sussex Flower School you become part of our community and Alicia along with previous students are here to help, support and look after new students on their floral journey. Visit out student story page to find out more about our previous students and what they are doing now.
Every student who comes to Flourish Sussex is met with warmth and enthusiasm. As the main teacher, Alicia guides all students and shares her wealth of knowledge, both practically and tackling the business side of the floristry industry. Having run a wedding and event business for eight years Alicia understands all of the challenges and the joy that working in the floristry industry can bring. Rest assured whatever it is you need Alicia will be on hand to guide and help you to fulfil your floristry dreams.
Our Career Change Course is split into sections: The Two Week Career Changing Course, The Foundation for Beginners, The Wedding Course and The Floristry Business Course, One to one. You will come away feeling inspired confident, supported and ready to launch your new floristry business.
The courses take you from learning the basic skills in floristry to the advance level of creating show stopping installations, all using sustainable methods. From the very beginning Alicia will encourage you to develop your own style of floristry. We leave traditional designs at the door and pour creativity, love and inspiration into each students designs. We are all different and Alicia will help you to explore your creative style through your floristry work.
Every day you will arrive to different, seasonal and beautiful flowers. We understand when you start it can be difficult to navigate all the different flowers out there. On our courses you will be surrounded by the most exquisite of ingredients to create with. Everyone is provided with a cut flower guide book on The Foundation Course and Career Course so you can start to familiarise yourself with the varieties out there.
In order to build a sustainable business it is vital that you get to grips with the business side of floristry too and here at Flourish Sussex we offer an in-depth business programme. Throughout the year we run one to ones where students spend a day with Alicia working through the building blocks that you need to master in order to create a profitable and sustainable business. From social media, to website building, pricing, to mindset, we cover it all. Students will come away with a wealth of knowledge and we have a great deal of resources at their finger tips whenever they need it in the future. To view our one to one business dates just click the link here.
Once you have completed any of our career changing courses you will be welcomed into our community of florists and growers, where we can arrange work experience, advice and assist you with any help you may need.
THE TWO WEEK CAREER CHANGE COURSE: TWO WEEKS
Our two week career course is perfect for those wishing to learn all the practical elements of floristry and event work. Over the course of the two weeks you will learn the following: hand tied bouquet, buttonholes, bridal posy, headdress, seasonal wreath, sympathy sheaf, see a demonstration of a double ended coffin spray, table display, urn, flower meadow, bridal bouquet with a mechanic, compote bowl, cloud, broken archway, table cascade and styling, and staircase installation. There is also a talk by a graduate of Flourish Sussex and we take a tour around Pitfields with head gardener Emma Martin. Over the course of the two weeks we will cover an introduction to running your business, suppliers, running through an auction, how to run a wedding, introduction to pricing and social media. We would recommend following this course up with our online business programme The Floristry Business Programme.
THE FOUNDATION FOR BEGINNERS: FIVE DAYS
Our Foundation for Beginners is a five day intensive course which covers all the fundamental designs in floristry. Practical work, we cover the following: hand tied bouquet, buttonholes, bridal bouquet, headdress, sympathy wreath, sympathy sheaf, demonstration of a double ended coffin spray, table display, urn, and group meadow. Business wise we cover the following, buying from a wholesaler, the tool box, eco-friendly methods, an introduction to pricing, setting up social media platforms, buying British and a talk is given about starting your own business. Everyone is given a cut flower guide book and an information pack is emailed over to you. You also get to keep the table ceramic and meadow box. For more information, dates and prices of our Foundation course please click on the link below.
THE WEDDING COURSE: FIVE DAYS
Our wedding course is the ultimate training needed to embark on your journey into wedding floral design. Over the course of five days students will be immersed into a world of floral design. We will cover the following displays: bridal bouquet using a mechanic, broken archway, a cloud, table bowl, table cascade and staircase display. We will work on a lot of the big displays as a group to create truly show stopping arrangements. For an afternoon we have a graduate Flourish student who will come to talk about their experience working as wedding florist and give a demonstration. We will also go over how to run a wedding, with a chance to ask questions.
OUR PROMISE
Once you have come to Flourish Sussex Flower School you are in our community for life! We have a wonderful group of florists and growers, all of whom support one another, offer advice and freelance work. This is something we are so proud of at the school. We also offer ongoing business support. You can book a one to one with Alicia at any point to reflect on how your business is going, go over anything you may find tricky. Whatever you need Alicia and the Flourish community are here to help you on your journey. We offer payment plans on all of our courses. We can’t wait to welcome more flower lovers into our flourish community.