UMass Extension Green School
This course confers 4.0 CEUs for AOLCPs
UMass Extension’s Green School is a comprehensive 60+ hour certificate short course that offers fundamental land care skills training in a compact time frame. The program is designed for professional practitioners such as landscapers, lawn care providers, nursery operators, public and private grounds managers, arborists, professional gardeners, landscape and garden designers, industry sales and support professionals, and others in the green industries. Both experienced professionals as well as those new to the industry will benefit from this course.
The curriculum, which emphasizes a systems-based approach to plant and land care, is built on a framework of Best Management Practices (BMPs) and Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The curriculum seeks to promote understanding of economically efficient and environmentally sound cultural practices, and the relation of those practices to the protection of natural resources and the health of non-target organisms. The primary learning objective is to communicate effective and efficient approaches for the production and maintenance of healthy, resilient, functional, and attractive managed landscapes with simultaneous emphasis on responsibility, sustainability, and environmental stewardship.
Green School is a recognized source of high-quality horticultural training and has been successfully offered to the industry as a certificate short course since the early 1990’s. Green School graduates numbering into the thousands hold positions of responsibility for the production and maintenance of managed landscapes in Massachusetts, New England, the Northeast, and beyond.
Course Format
Green School in 2026 will be an entirely online course taught by UMass Extension specialists, UMass faculty, and distinguished guest instructors. An online vs in-person course format offers particular benefits, including registration cost savings due to reduced overhead, savings on time and travel expenses, and opportunity for those who may unable to attend in person due to other commitments, travel restrictions or distance the ability to participate from the convenience of their own homes and offices!
When? Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from October 27, 2026 – December 17, 2026. Mandatory orientation is scheduled for October 22, 2026, from 4 pm – 5:30 pm.
Geographic Disclaimer: While attendees from far and wide are welcome to join us for this virtual course, please note that the information presented will have a geographic focus on Massachusetts and New England, and therefore will be most applicable to those locations (contact us to discuss for further details). Note also that scheduled class times are listed in Eastern Time. Prospective students in other time zones should consider and plan ahead to manage time zone differences.