Training course: Permaculture Design Certificate
An intensive course that gave youth workers from nine countries the internationally recognised Permaculture Design Certificate.
Why
Permaculture is a way of designing human spaces and communities that work with nature rather than against it. It is also a powerful educational tool. This course gave youth workers the internationally recognised Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) and explored how to bring permaculture into their work with young people.
What happened
- Foundations: the ethics and principles of permaculture and the basics of ecology.
- Design: three design modules, from reading a place to planning it, with practical work on the farm.
- Water, soil and food: water in the landscape, soil and food gardens, food forests.
- Building and energy: natural building with local materials and low-cost, energy-efficient technology.
- Strategies for bioregional development, and how to apply all this at home and in youth work.
- Project work: in six teams, participants designed the future of La Buona Terra as a place for learning, and presented their designs at the end of the course.
Results
- Participants received the Permaculture Design Certificate.
- Six permaculture designs for La Buona Terra, made by the participants.
- In the EU survey, 15 of 20 respondents were very satisfied and 5 satisfied; 19 of 20 would recommend the experience to a colleague.
“I will apply permaculture principles in my work, since I am an architect, and also in my daily life, because I want to start a sustainability community.” (a Permaculture for Youthworkers participant)
“I am committed to actively helping improve our world more sustainably, guided by the permaculture ethics and principles.” (a Permaculture for Youthworkers participant)
