The Society of American Florists is now curating educational training, created by the industry's trainers, teachers, and floral pros, in one central location — its Career Connection learning hub. The first five courses dive into fundamental topics that have a bottom-line impact on shop operations, including setting new hires up for success, reducing shrink, getting new hires on the design bench faster, and cross-training current employees.
“I managed a flower shop for more than 20 years and I was always hungry for educational content that would enhance my skills and improve shop operations,” says Kate Delaney, AAF, SAF Director of Career Development, who spearheaded the development of the platform. “SAF recognized this industry need for education and is leveraging its resources to create training and also partner with existing training resources to create a one-stop resource. And Career Connection makes accessing the best industry training easy because it’s all in one place.”
The following on-demand learning courses are available now – and new content will be added regularly.
Introduction to the Floral Industry, presented by SAF, is an orientation course for new hires with little or no industry experience and is free for SAF members. It provides big-picture information that employees need to problem solve and communicate with customers and suppliers. Key takeaways include where each segment fits within the supply chain, how different roles collaborate and depend on each other, where the floral product comes from, and more.
Flower Care & Handling, presented by WF&FSA, explains why correct care & handling processes lead to decreased waste, increased product quality, customer satisfaction, and higher profits.
The course covers care and handling basics like floral anatomy, food dosing, temperature control, stem cutting, and more. New hires, members of the processing team, and current employees will benefit from understanding how to care for cut flowers and why correct procedures prolong floral health.
Flower Prep School: The Essentials, presented by Flower Clique, saves on training time by introducing universal design basics that will get inexperienced employees on the design bench faster. Visual demonstrations teach the tools of the trade– the "whys" and "how’s" of design mechanics, production, pricing strategies, and more.
Wedding Flowers: Bouquets, presented by Floriology, provides training to take new hires or current employees from daily production into the wedding design. Participants will learn wedding terminology, tips for working with wedding clients, budgeting, step-by-step demonstrations for creating the most popular wedding bouquets, and more.
Marketing of Flowers 101: Strategy and Introduction to Social Media, presented by Floriology, shares tools and resources to develop a successful social media strategy – from identifying and targeting the correct consumer base to creating photo and video posts that resonate with shoppers and turn into sales. Social media is an essential marketing tool, and this course ensures participants feel confident managing social channels and promotions for their business.
For more information:
SAF
Kate Delaney
kdelaney@safnow.org
www.safnow.org