A Day in the Life of a Plant Health and Seed Inspector

We recently caught up with Bright Network member, Romy, to chat through how her careers is going. Romy has been working as a plant health and seed inspector and told us about her personal experience of what a day in the life of a plant health and seed inspector is really like.

Read on to learn more about what a plant heath and seed inspector does and whether it’s the career path for you.

What does a plant health and seed inspector do?

Plant health and seed inspectors are responsible for making sure that the plants at a nursery, garden or garden centre don’t have any dangerous pests or diseases that spread across the UK. It’s their job to determine whether the plants are healthy with no risk of spreading anything infectious. Since many plants are brought into and move out of the country every day, plant health and seed inspectors can specialise in imports, exports or plants grown in the UK. Romy works for the imports department, keeping our plants safe and healthy!

We asked Romy about some of the tasks she does in her job.

Is there a task or project that has stood out to you?

The foundation of my role is to prevent the spreading of pests and diseases that come from different countries. This can be in either produce or plants. It’s a big role! At the moment I’m working on future leaders’ programme. I’m working in a team across departments to make a guide for line managers based on our personal experience.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned since starting?

You have to be very self-motivated. As it is a really independent role, you have to want to work or else you could be quite lazy with it. I wake up each morning and I want to work – I really love the job! I want to make my day fulfilling.

Working conditions of a plant health and seed inspector

Since Romy and other plant health and seed inspectors have to make sure plant imports comply with the government policy of making sure there are no pests and diseases entering into the country which could be harmful, they typically work for the public sector, or departments within the government. This means her working conditions are similar to that of other governmental agencies like the civil service.

We asked Romy what it’s like working in her department.

What's the culture like?

It’s very friendly. Everyone I’ve worked with is really nice. It’s been great to meet people in person at last, and we’ve finally been able to organise team events. We all went to RHS Garden Hyde Hall, and we all went around looking at the trees. It was really cute.

What was one thing that you didn’t expect when working at the company?

How self-motivated you need to be. You really get out what you put in with this job. To get a lot out of the job, you have to put yourself out there: shadow different inspectors, go to different areas, not be afraid of getting there independently, go to different glass houses, nurseries, garden centres.

There is a lot of independent working once you’ve been trained and you have to go to all of these places on your own. You should be confident in approaching people, speaking to them and explaining why you’re there and the process they should expect. Sometimes my job involves doing things that clients won’t like. I’ve had to tell a garden centre to destroy 100 plants before because the lab confirmed a pest I’d found on it. I’ve found it can be difficult because there is a lot of hesitation around destroying so many plants, and they’re not always sure how to do it properly. I have to explain the process to them so it’s done in a safe way.

What has been the highlight of working for the company?

How interactive the role has been so far. Everyday I’m doing something different because I’m out inspecting a different place. I do my admin work from home, but I also drive around my area going to the places I need to inspect. There’s so much you can learn with this job and there are so many opportunities.

A typical day in the life of a plant health and seed inspector

Working as a plant health and seed inspector involves a lot of organisation and willingness to get on with the job. You could have the freedom to choose how you want to structure your working life!

We asked Romy what her typical working day is like, from the first thing she does in the morning to the plants she inspects.

What is the first thing you do in the morning?

Check my emails – the classic! Boring, but it has to be done every morning. A lot of my work is through emails because I talk to clients, and they let me know if there are any problems through email.

What does a typical day involve?

My working day involves a lot of organising my own work. I update myself and see if anything needs to be inspected in the local area. If something has come up, then I organise my day based on what needs inspecting. This could mean going to garden centres or nurseries. I look at the plants to identify any pests or diseases. I check the plants’ general health and specifically look for a few pests that we want to prevent coming into the country.

We specifically look for a particular disease which could be really damaging if it came into the country because it would spread to lots of plants. I do lots of testing for this disease, even if I don’t see any evidence of the disease, I will still test some plants like olive trees for it.

I’ve only found one quarantine pest so far which was like a white fly. This mainly comes in on pepper plants. My job involves inspecting plants, identifying any causes of concern, getting samples and sending it off to the lab for a full diagnosis.

How you could become a plant health and seed inspector

Joining the plant health and seed inspector career path does have some skill and education requirements. Transferable skills you need include organisation, communication and independence. You also need a good understanding of plant biology and the common pests and diseases that a plant may suffer from. This could come from a degree in biology, or you could go down a non-degree route through an apprenticeship.

We asked Romy her advice on how you can break into the plant health and seed inspector career path.

What top tips would you give Bright Network members wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Put yourself out there! Talk to people and don’t be a hermit!

Learn from your more experienced colleagues. They’re helpful, insightful and you can learn a lot from them.

Have you been inspired by Romy? Are you considering joining the plant health and seed inspector career path? Explore the current public sector and government jobs available to you!