Groundsperson CV Examples & Writing Guide
A groundsperson CV is judged on how much ground you kept and how it looked. Managers want hectares or pitches maintained, the machinery you run, your irrigation and turf work, your spraying certificates, and whether you handle gritting or storm call-outs. Property type matters: golf, sports grounds, schools and council parks are different jobs.
Groundsperson CV example
This sample is for a groundsperson with about nine years: council parks first, then a group of schools, now sports turf at a university. The person and the employers are made up. Take the structure and put your own hectares, machinery and certificates in.
Ellis Vandermeer
Groundsperson / Sports Turf Technician
Loughborough, Leicestershire · 07700 900152 · e.vandermeer.grounds@email.com
Summary
Groundsperson with 9 years across parks, schools and university sport. Maintains 25 hectares including 7 pitches and a cricket square, 2 of the pitches native soil and 1 synthetic. Mows, aerates, overseeds, feeds and marks out for a 40-fixture home season. Holds PA1 and PA6 spraying certificates. No fixtures called off for pitch condition in 3 seasons.
Experience
Sports Turf Technician · University sports grounds (football, rugby, cricket and hockey)
Apr 2022 – Present
- Maintain 25 hectares including cricket, football, rugby and hockey surfaces, mowing 3 to 5 times a week at heights from 12 to 40 mm by sport.
- Prepare and mark out pitches for about 40 home fixtures a season, including cricket wicket preparation, rolling and line marking, with no fixtures called off for pitch condition in 3 seasons.
- Run the irrigation system across 340 pop-up heads: weekly checks, head and valve repairs, and controller programming that cut summer water use by roughly 18%.
- Apply fertilisers and plant protection products under PA1 and PA6 certificates, keeping a complete application record for every area treated.
- Hollow tine, top-dress and overseed on an autumn and spring renovation programme, taking two native soil pitches from about 60% to over 90% grass cover in two seasons.
Grounds Maintenance Operative · Multi-academy trust, 6 school sites
May 2019 – Mar 2022
- Mowed, strimmed and edged 18 hectares across 6 schools on a weekly rotation with a 3-person team and 2 zero-turn mowers.
- Handled gritting and snow clearance on 9 car parks and 6 km of footpaths on call-out, averaging 14 call-outs a winter with car parks clear before staff and pupils arrived at 7.30 am.
- Pruned shrubs and small trees, mulched 90 beds a year and kept play surfaces to the trust's safety inspection standard.
- Repaired 40 to 60 irrigation heads and 8 to 12 broken pipe runs a season and kept the parts stock so repairs happened the same day.
- Maintained the team's machinery: blade sharpening, oil and filter changes, belt replacement, with no mower out of service more than one day.
Parks Operative · District council parks and open spaces team
Jun 2017 – Apr 2019
- Mowed and strimmed 50 hectares of park grass on a 10-day cycle with gang mowers and a tractor.
- Emptied 180 litter bins twice a week, cleaned 6 public toilet blocks daily and removed reported graffiti within 24 hours.
- Set up and cleared away 30 to 40 community events a season, including pitches, barriers and pavilion bookings.
- Completed the council's chainsaw (CS30) and small engine training in the first year and joined the storm damage response rota.
Education
Level 2 qualification in sports turf maintenance (part-time)
Land-based college, East Midlands, 2021
A-levels: Geography, Biology, PE
Sixth form college, Loughborough, 2016
Certifications
- PA1 and PA6 pesticide application certificates (City & Guilds NPTC), NRoSO member
- Grounds Management Association (GMA) cricket square preparation course, 2023
- IOSH Working Safely, 2022
- Emergency First Aid at Work, valid to 2027
- Full UK driving licence (B+E), clean; tows machinery trailers up to 3.5 tonnes
Skills
What a grounds manager reads first
You are usually screened by a head groundsperson, a grounds or estates manager or a sports facilities manager. Four things decide whether you get a call.
- Scale. Hectares, pitches, sites, holes. It tells them whether you have worked at their size or half of it.
- Spraying certificates. To apply professional weedkillers and other plant protection products at work you generally need PA1 plus the right application module. Holding them moves you up several places instantly.
- Machinery. Which mowers, whether you can run a tractor, compact loader, aerator or gritter, and whether you can service the machines instead of waiting for a mechanic.
- Availability for the ugly hours. Early mowing before fixtures, weekend matches, gritting call-outs at 3 am, storm clear-ups. Say plainly what you will do.
“Two things get you an interview with me: a spraying certificate and a number for how much ground you covered. If you also say you can rebuild an irrigation valve and grit at four in the morning, you are ahead of people with a degree. This work is measured in acres and in whether the field played on Saturday.”
Groundsperson personal statement and career objective examples
Three or four lines. Years, property type, hectares or pitch count, then your certificates and machinery. Use a career objective only if this is your first grounds job.
Groundsperson with 9 years across parks, schools and university sport. Maintains 25 hectares including 7 pitches and a cricket square, mowing 3 to 5 times a week at heights from 12 to 40 mm by sport and preparing pitches for a 40-fixture home season. PA1 and PA6 certificated. No fixtures called off for pitch condition in 3 seasons.
Greenkeeper with 6 seasons on an 18-hole pay-and-play course. Mows greens at about 3 mm, tees and approaches daily, and rolls before competitions. Changes holes and moves tee markers on a 5.30 am rota, works through the irrigation repair list, and handles bunker edging and sand replacement. Familiar with top-dressing, verti-cutting and spring hollow tining.
Grounds maintenance operative with 5 years covering 6 school sites and 18 hectares of grass with a 3-person team. Handles gritting and snow clearance on 9 car parks and 6 km of footpaths, averaging 14 call-outs a winter with car parks clear before staff arrive at 7.30 am. Repairs 40 to 60 irrigation heads a season and services all team machinery.
Senior groundsperson with 12 years, the last 4 allocating a 6-person team across 57 hectares and 3 sites. Builds the annual mowing, feeding and aeration programme, orders materials against a £140,000 budget, and keeps the team's overtime within plan. Holds PA1, PA2 and PA6 and a Level 3 sports turf qualification. Seeking a head groundsperson role.
Seeking a groundsperson or grounds maintenance operative position with a school, council or sports club. Three summers of mowing, strimming and mulching for a residential grounds maintenance contractor, running zero-turn mowers and towing machinery trailers daily. Full UK driving licence, clean. Available for early starts, weekend fixtures and winter gritting call-outs.
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Groundsperson duties on a CV: before and after
A lot of groundsperson CVs are a list of verbs. Add the scale, the schedule and the result and the same duty becomes evidence.
| Duty list version | Version that gets a call |
|---|---|
| Mow grass and trim edges. | Mowed, strimmed and edged 18 hectares across 6 school sites on a weekly rotation with a 3-person team and 2 zero-turn mowers. |
| Maintain sports pitches. | Prepared and marked out pitches for about 40 home fixtures a season including cricket wicket preparation and rolling, with no fixtures called off for pitch condition in 3 seasons. |
| Water plants and grass. | Checked 340 irrigation heads weekly, repaired heads and valves, and reprogrammed controllers to cut summer water use by roughly 18%. |
| Apply fertiliser and chemicals. | Applied fertilisers and plant protection products under PA1 and PA6 certificates, with a complete application record kept for every area treated. |
| Improve turf quality. | Hollow tined, top-dressed and overseeded on an autumn and spring programme, taking two native soil pitches from about 60% to over 90% grass cover in two seasons. |
| Grit and clear snow in winter. | Gritted and cleared 9 car parks and 6 km of footpaths on call-out, averaging 14 call-outs a winter with all car parks open before staff arrived at 7.30 am. |
| Prune trees and shrubs. | Pruned shrubs and small trees and mulched 90 beds a year, and joined the storm damage response rota after chainsaw (CS30) training. |
| Maintain machinery. | Sharpened blades, changed oil and filters and replaced belts on team machinery, keeping no mower out of service more than one day. |
| Keep grounds clean. | Emptied 180 litter bins twice weekly, cleaned 6 public toilet blocks daily and removed reported graffiti within 24 hours. |
| Support events. | Set up and cleared away 30 to 40 community events a season including pitch marking, barriers and pavilion bookings. |
Groundsperson CV skills
Sort the list so a manager can see whether you fit their property. Turf work, machinery, then the seasonal and physical realities.
Turf and grounds work:
- Mowing to a set height of cut, including cylinder mowing on greens and sports turf
- Pitch preparation: line marking, cricket wicket preparation and rolling, goal and post setting
- Aeration, verti-cutting, top-dressing, overseeding and turfing
- Feeding programmes, soil tests and reading the results
- Weed, disease and pest identification and treatment timing
- Irrigation checks, head and valve repair, pipe repair, controller programming
- Pruning, mulching, bed edging and seasonal bedding
- Hard surface upkeep: paths, kerbs, fence lines, drainage and washouts
Machinery:
- Zero-turn, cylinder, gang and rotary mowers; pedestrian greens mower
- Tractor with attachments, compact loader, utility vehicle, aerator, top-dresser
- Brushcutter/strimmer, blower, edger, chainsaw, hedge cutter
- Sprayers, spreaders and calibration
- Gritter, snow plough blade, snow blower
- Blade sharpening, small engine servicing, hydraulic hose replacement
- Trailer towing and safe loading of machinery
The realities worth stating:
- Early starts before fixtures and play, and weekend match cover
- Gritting and storm call-outs at any hour
- Working through heat, rain and long summer mowing weeks
- Keeping application records that stand up to an audit or inspection
- Working around pupils, players, spectators and the public
Spraying certificates, qualifications and education
The spraying certificate is the single credential that most often changes a groundsperson's pay, so give it properly: modules, awarding body and status.
- Pesticide application certificates. PA1 (the foundation module) plus the module for your kit: PA6 for hand-held applicators such as knapsack sprayers, PA6AW for weeds in or near water, and PA2 if you run a tractor-mounted or trailed boom sprayer. They come from City & Guilds NPTC or Lantra. Write it as "PA1 and PA6 (City & Guilds NPTC), NRoSO member" and name exactly the modules on your certificate.
- Grounds Management Association (GMA, formerly the Institute of Groundsmanship, IOG) training. The GMA runs practical courses for sports turf, and older certificates may carry the IOG name. List the course and year; only claim a qualification if you passed its assessment.
- Golf: BIGGA (British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association) membership and any greenkeeping qualification. BIGGA's senior credentials are for experienced head greenkeepers and course managers, so list membership honestly and do not imply more.
- IOSH Working Safely, Emergency First Aid at Work and chainsaw certificates (CS30 for maintenance and cross-cutting, CS31 for felling small trees).
- Driving: a full car licence (category B) normally covers driving a tractor on the road (category F). Say whether you can tow (B+E or the trailer weights you are used to), because grounds teams move machinery between sites daily.
- Education: a Level 2 or 3 qualification in sports turf or horticulture, a sports turf or horticulture apprenticeship, or an HND or foundation degree in sports turf is a genuine advantage on sports grounds and golf, and optional elsewhere.
- Lantra short courses: ride-on mower, brushcutter/strimmer, and safe use of pedestrian machinery. Optional, but councils and grounds maintenance contractors often ask for them, and some pay for them.
Format, groundsperson versus groundskeeper, and advert words
- One page. Two only for a head groundsperson role with budgets and teams to describe.
- No photo, no date of birth and no marital status on a UK CV.
- Put the certificates and machinery lines high on the page, under the personal statement. They are what gets scanned.
- Give a hectare (or acre) figure for every job, even an approximate one.
- If you cover gritting and snow, say so early. Schools, councils and estates teams plan winter cover in the autumn.
Groundsman is the traditional British term and still the most searched; groundsperson and grounds maintenance operative are what many UK adverts now say. Greenkeeper is the golf term. Groundskeeper is the standard US title, and US employers expect a resume and a state pesticide applicator licence. Use the title from the advert in your headline and mention one other once so both searches find you. Mirror the rest of the advert too: grounds maintenance, sports turf, mowing, pitch preparation, irrigation, feeding, aeration, overseeding, PA1/PA6, gritting, hard landscaping upkeep, machinery maintenance.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good groundsperson job description for a CV?
Describe the property, its size and what you did to keep it: hectares or pitches maintained, mowing frequency and heights, irrigation repairs, feeding and spraying, fixture preparation, gritting, and machinery you service yourself. Skip the generic verb list from a job advert. A grounds manager can tell within one bullet whether the number is yours.
What skills should a groundsperson put on a CV?
Mowing to a set height, pitch preparation if relevant, aeration and overseeding, fertiliser and plant protection product application, irrigation checks and repairs, pruning and mulching, gritting and snow clearance, plus the machinery you can run and service. Add trailer towing and small engine repair, because those two save an employer real money.
What is a good personal statement for a groundsperson CV?
Three or four lines: years of experience, the type of property, the hectares or pitch count, one result, and your spraying certificates. For example: "Groundsperson with 9 years across parks, schools and university sport. Maintains 25 hectares including 7 pitches and a cricket square. PA1 and PA6 certificated. No fixtures called off for pitch condition in 3 seasons."
Do I need a spraying certificate to be a groundsperson?
Not to be hired, but you generally need PA1 plus the right application module (usually PA6) to apply professional weedkillers and other plant protection products at work, and employers pay more for it. The courses run through City & Guilds NPTC or Lantra centres, with a practical assessment. Check the awarding body for current module names before you book.
How do I write a groundsperson CV with no experience?
Lead with mowing or outdoor work of any kind: residential grounds maintenance, farm work, construction labouring, seasonal help at a golf club. Say you can run a zero-turn, tow a trailer and start early. Add that you are available for weekend fixtures and winter gritting call-outs. Get Emergency First Aid at Work and a Lantra ride-on mower or brushcutter course before you apply, and PA1 if you can.
How is a greenkeeper CV different?
Golf runs on much tighter tolerances and earlier hours. Talk about mowing heights on greens, tees and fairways, hole changing and tee marker rotation, bunker work, rolling before play, top-dressing, verti-cutting and hollow tining. Mention the team size and how many holes you covered, and whether you worked ahead of play or behind it.
How long should a groundsperson CV be?
One page. Head groundspeople and grounds managers read fast and often on a tablet in the machinery shed. Go to two pages only for a head groundsperson or grounds manager role where you need to describe budgets, team size, contracts and the annual maintenance programme.
Should I use groundsman, groundsperson or groundskeeper as my title?
Use the advert's title. In the UK that is usually groundsman, groundsperson or grounds maintenance operative, and greenkeeper on golf courses. Groundskeeper is the US title and appears in some UK searches. Put the advert's word in your headline and mention one alternative once in the personal statement so both searches find you.
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How this page was made: a first draft was written with AI assistance from cvplex's example library, then edited and fact-checked by the cvplex Careers Team. Examples are fictional composites; numbers are illustrative. Report an error via the editorial policy page.