Since being awarded a BBM Scholarship in 2014, horticulturist Caitlin Sawyer has gone on to win many more awards and recognitions, including ‘Young Achiever Of The Year’ for services in the local community in Horticulture, ‘Horticulturist of the Year’  from Garden Clubs Australia, ‘Excellence Award- Horticulture’ from TAFE North Coast Institute.

But the past year, despite its challenges, has seen Caitlin reach her greatest achievement yet, and 2022 is shaping up to be bright:

“I now teach part time for TAFE NSW. This will be my second year. I am teaching at various campuses in the north region, as well as some school based trainees via MS Teams for the West region. These students have a similar start to myself working in the nursery industry whilst in years 10-12. So I really enjoy it, and genuinely love teaching likeminded people!

2022 is set to be the best so far with the launch of TAFE20 Launchpad in February.

I’ll get the opportunity to train and assess all NSW High School students wanting to study Certificate II Horticulture as part of their HSC via blended delivery. It’s very exciting and I’m humbled to be selected and apart of the team delivering the learning to such an eager group of young people.

When I’m not teaching, I work as a technical officer at TAFE, I work at the family nursery which keeps my hands dirty, or I write articles on gardening for the local paper.”