The Garden Centre Association’s Garden Retail Online Workshops (GROW) e-Learning platform is offering a new course to help recognise and prevent workplace sexual harassment.

Available to all GCA member garden centres and their teams and to Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) garden centres too, this is the 95th course to be added to GROW.

Antony Snow, GROW’s Instructional Designer, explains: “Introduced in October 2024, the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 is an important piece of legislation that protects all employees from sexual harassment in the workplace.

“Now that all employers have a duty to ensure that ‘reasonable steps’ have been taken to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, providing adequate training has become even more crucial.

“I hope that this course will provide all of our members’ employees, regardless of their seniority, with the training that they need to recognise what sexual harassment is, as well as guidance on what steps should be taken to prevent it in their centres.”

GROW courses cover a wide range of essential topics to help employees, so they can effectively help any customers and colleagues who need assistance.

Peter Burks, GCA CEO, adds: “GROW is accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, making it convenient for garden centre staff to use when it suits them. Our members say it’s an invaluable, cost-effective way of providing staff training and personal development.

“If you’d like to find out more about this course, GROW and the other 94 courses provided, please get in touch. There is a section on our website www.gca.org.uk/gca-grow-information and people can also contact Antony direct via our dedicated GROW email grow@gca.org.uk.”

GROW started as an initial idea, devised during a strategy meeting of the GCA’s executive committee, to bring education and training tailored to individuals employed in the garden centre industry.

It’s a self-funding and non-profit facility with any surpluses being reinvested into its ongoing development and improvement. There are currently 95 courses and more than 12,000 users throughout the UK.

These courses include a wide range of topics that cover horticulture, customer service, food safety, regulated sales and health and safety.

All the courses have been written by experts in their field and are designed to apply to a garden centre environment, with the content for the horticultural courses drawing on the vast experience of members within the GCA.

The new course is accessible immediately to existing subscribers.