BEING at the heart of the community is what Palmer Gardens in Trowbridge strives to achieve.

Since its inception over 100 years ago, the Islington garden centre has seen major changes in its offerings and ownership, but one thing which has remained constant is helping disadvantaged and disabled people get into employment.

Palmer Gardens boasts an impressive variety of garden and outdoor products alongside a café and shop, offering visitors a wide range of gardening and home products.

The garden centre is part of the Shaw Trust which is one of the largest providers of employment services for disabled people in the UK, employing around 1600 people, and works with around 78,000 clients a year to overcome barriers to employment, inclusion and independence.

Emma Black, training manager at Palmer Gardens said since joining three years ago, she has seen both the learners and business go from strength-to-strength as they now help 30 students.

She added: “At Palmer Gardens we help a range of people who different abilities and barriers get into work and we train them in a number of skills.

“Having everyone in different colour uniforms it helps our customers as well as our learners because if they ask one of them a question, they will know that they are in training and might need help. All of our learners can work in the shop, café or out in the garden centre itself.

“Our aim is to get as many of our learners into sustainable employment and what we have found is that it is these transferable skills are vital and that is what we work on a lot. We also try to work on how learners might do other things such as the difference in speaking to your manager as opposed to your colleague or customer and it is these unwritten rules that help a lot.

“Since we started, we have had learners move into apprenticeships, full-time employment, part-time employment and some have even come on board at Palmer Gardens.”