Hi,

I have recently been looking at at acourse offered by he The Insitute of Gardening. Their web address is http://www.inst.org/garden/index.htm they offer a course which follows the RHS general eaxam and it seems to be well suited for what I need, however.

I am trying to make sure I buy the right course. I am interested in developing a career in amenity horticulture and would ideally like to work in a Park or National Trust type of enviroment. The problem is I have NO relavent experience and this will require a huge carer change for me.

What I am most concerned about is sending quite a large sum of money to an organisation that I hadn't really heard of before, have a fairly basic website with no actual examples of the type of courseware that you will receive. But do manage to give enough information to make the course sound attractive.

Can people who may have purchased this course or others, please respond giving some feedback as to the quality of courseware (ie is it all photocopied, as I have paid large sums for in the past!) is it sturdily bound, informative, simple to use as reference and detailed enough to actually make a sitting the RHS General Examination Certificate without having to buy tons of supplemental reading?

PHEW !!! Thanks for sticking with this post hopefully I and other potential students will find the responses useful in the future.