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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Advanced permaculture training & PDC

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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Advanced permaculture training & PDC
  • Date: Sat, 03 Sep 2011 04:28:27 -0400

On 9/3/2011 3:15 AM, Robyn Francis wrote:
APT is the Accredited Permaculture Training system here in Australia. In Oz
there's a national accreditation system for vocational training and
qualifications (e.g. Trade certificates and diplomas) We have permaculture
qualifications and vocational training which has been going since 2003. PT
is owned by the Australian pc community via Permaculture International Ltd.

Excellent! Great work you all have done. We need this here in the USA...NOW. I am glad to learn about this. Much discussion has unfolded in this forum about maintaining the standards that represent permaculture, how it is taught and who can teach it. I hope that those who see this as important are still working to define, document
and maintain those all important standards. You hear the questions: what is permaculture, what is real permaculture, how do I practice it and how do I know I am doing it right. A heirarchy of professionals from all countries could contribute content for a standards document.
This would help expand the movement. Anyone, for that matter, could contribute material within a peer review environment and an editorial committee could select from this body of information or grass roots knowledgebase, material to go into the final document, ultimately, a work in progress.

I have been very interested in this sort of thing for years, now more than ever. It is fascinating to create essays on various topics that relate to the study and practice of permaculture. In this context, Permaculture provides a very comfortable vehicle to use in developing one's ideas, methods and concepts, especially knowing that you are adding value to a comprehensive global knowledgebase that is shared with others. I regularly add material to my garden tool sourcelist and biointensive gardening guide in the hopes that it will be used in this way.

The APT lower certificates (I& II) are more suited to secondary school and
community education, whereas the Certificates III, IV and Diploma are geared
towards training professional permaculture practitioners in all fields of
permaculture work.

Vocational qualifications differ from university degrees in that they are
competency-based learning with equal emphasis on practical application,
skills and knowledge.

Here we have commercial trade schools, state-supported community colleges (one per county), extension education offered by universities
plus online courses.

There's info about APT at
http://www.permacultureaustralia.org.au/category/permaculture-australia/apt/
There's also useful info on the Cert III, IV and Diploma programs here at
PCA (Djanbung Gardens)
http://permaculture.com.au/online/accredited-training/accredited-training
Also some of our FAQs might be helpful

Am most happy to discuss APT generally on this list, however when its gets
down to nitty gritty stuff for a dedicated group and working committee to
communicate then a means of exchange independent of a public forum is the
appropriate way to go.

Sounds good but don't forget that you have a 930+ person audience here with plenty of potential for useful discussion plus folks that want to know about APT, many of whom may become professionally involved. It is super important for this to be adopted here in the USA.

Let the talk flow...here and elsewhere. Please announce any APT forum
you create here. BTW, I would recommend Google's resources since Google+ is now amongst us :-) Google resources include:
- GMail (email)
- Discussion Groups (Google Groups)
- Sites (Google Sites)
- Custom search engines; useful! and in ways some may not have thought of. Ex:
create a Thunderbird folder and fill it with carefully selected email messages; upload it to a website and run mhonarc or hypermail on it to create an indexed, sortable web archive of messages - create a number of these (like, especially good discussions of edge zones, raised beds, berming and swales, remineralization, soil biology, nutrient balancing for optimal plant growth, etc.) and include just links to those individual webarchives in a CSE; then create multiple CSE's; add them to Google docs, blogs, websites. The possibilities are endless; just what you need to create a permaculture standards document; collaborative group work.
- Blog (Blogger)
- Google Docs
- Buzz
- Google+ - I am now using and developing resources in that environment. It is way far and beyond anything Facebook will ever accomplish, at least as far as the needs of content-oriented people are concerned.
- interlinking of all the above, expertly

Would anyone like a Google+ invitation? There are already a number of permies involved there.

LL




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