This segment comes from Darren Dougherty:
PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATE COURSE PROGRAM
Target Audience
Local and regional partner convenors are the best judges of the local market for a PDC. That said we anticipate that targeted participants will primarily be those people working in the Permaculture-aligned industries that have an interest in or are working in sustainable project development. Urban fringe and rural landholders wanting to buffer their properties against the vagaries of climate change and on-going land degradation through drought-proofing, soil renovation and crop diversification are also a likely market. Urban participants wishing to understand, design and develop the more intensive production systems needed in cityscapes are also target, as are students, teachers, professionals and activists wishing to broaden their minds and vocational horizons for the betterment of earth systems and the habitats of humans.
There are no minimum education requirements to attend a PDC, though some previous reading or knowledge, traditional or scholastic, is an advantage. My preference is to limit class sizes to 25 people, with learning, assessment and participatory difficulties faced more often than not where numbers above this are encountered. Certainly the operational cost of catering for larger groups becomes less sustainable.
Outcomes
Our clear intention in delivering PDC’s is to facilitate to all students the understanding of the design concepts and themes that are Permaculture Design and to provide them with the best opportunity to manifest these into sustained on-ground action as Permaculture Design teachers and/or developers.
Furthermore our intention is to enable future local and regional Permaculture Designers to broaden and strengthen their business opportunities by free access to our pioneering business model which has been very successful and identified as such by many a Permaculture luminary.
Participants attending our PDC’s will gain the following outcomes/products. The first of these is a minimum requirement of a PDC delivered by a Registered Teacher of TPI. All others are available to accelerate the ability of participants to develop, consult and teach Permaculture Design:
• Demonstrated understanding of Permaculture Design according to the criteria laid out in Permaculture: A Designers Manual
• Basic understanding of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications in developing Permaculture Designs
• Provision of Microsoft Excel-based Worksheet package for Client & Project Management, Development and Management processes
• Complete digital photo library catalogued according to subjects
• Base understanding of design and development principles involved with Broadacre Permaculture applications including:
o Whole Farm Planning/Property Management Planning
o Land Component identification and classification
o Earthworks & Soil Renovation techniques and machinery applications
o Use and development of land system-based standard designs
o Farm Forestry & Tree Crop ground preparation, management & processing techniques
o Water Harvesting & Drought-proofing methods and applications
PROPOSED EDUCATION PROGRAM
Assessment
Assessment of participants will be based upon full attendance of the 72 hour program, and by completion of the group-based major design exercise. Historically failure of the PDC has been by those who have not fulfilled either of these criteria, but more so by those who fail to put the knowledge gained to productive use after completion of the PDC.
This section comes from me:
LEAD INSTRUCTOR
Wayne Weiseman is certified by the Permaculture Institute of Australia as an instructor of the Permaculture Design Certificate Course, and has taught the course and consulted internationally for many years. He has worked as a school teacher and as a consultant to educators and administrators in curriculum and professional development. As a primitive wilderness instructor he relied on observation techniques and a thorough understanding of the natural world in order to educate his students. He has worked extensively with corporate executives in the arts of team building, nature study and the application of ideas in business and life developed through observation of the cycles and connections found in the natural world. He has worked as a builder and contractor, herbalist, renewable energy expert, farmer, educator, and designer and site planner for the past twenty-five years. Wayne is Director of The Permaculture Project, a full service, international consulting business promoting the ideas of eco-agriculture, renewable energy resources, eco-construction methods, and education. He currently plies his trade at Dayempur Farm in Southern Illinois, a land-based, self-reliant community project combining organic crop/food production, ecologically-built shelter, renewable energy, appropriate technologies and educational programs.