The BALI Chalk Fund is delighted to announce that they have updated their Student of the Year competition to reflect the wider aspect of BALI membership.

This year there are now two categories where colleges can nominate their best students studying either Landscape or Garden Design.

In the past Garden Design colleges did not consider themselves eligible for SOTY and the trustees felt this was wrong, as both categories are part of the landscape industry.

Application forms have been sent to colleges as the summer term starts and students studying for a level 2 or above course are eligible to be nominated by their tutors.

Each “Best” student will receive a £100 prize and certificate and be enrolled into the National Student of the Year competition where both categories can receive the £500 prize each for student and college is awarded at the famous BALI Awards in December.

Trustees Nick Coslett & Paul Cowell said: “We are delighted to have modernised the SOTY award to include Garden Design Colleges and we are looking forward to judging this years entrants”

Trustees comprise past and current BALI members (including several past chairmen) whose role is to identify industry needs that meet the Fund’s criteria for support and develop innovative ways to deliver appropriate solutions.

To date, the BALI Chalk Fund has facilitated the development of industry training materials, awarded travel scholarships to enable young landscapers to learn from their counterparts overseas, provided training prizes for the winners of the national finals of the WorldSkills UK Landscape Gardening competition and supported land-based colleges by providing trophies for outstanding achievement to students on landscape-related courses.

The Fund is currently helping to support the development of an industry student enrichment programme.