permaculture

[ERDA Institute <erda@nor.com.au>]

We are anticipating that private Pc trainers should be able to provide APT
(Accredited Permaculture Training) at comparative costs to TAFE. Students
will be able to access the same forms of government funding/subsidy for an
independently delivered APT course as they do with TAFE courses (e.g.
training credits from Centrelink).
It's still early days in terms of developing delivery strategies and budgets
and the team is committed to making sure it opens new opportunities for
accredited training outside of the TAFE system. It's really a matter of pc
teachers getting organised to deliver.
APT presents an opportunity to get a 'bioregional campus' of pc trainers,
practitioners and qualified assessors together to offer students exciting
new ways to train beyond the classroom, in ways TAFE could never imagine.

When TAFE delivers one of these courses an amount ($$) will go to PIL as the
owner of the course, so there will be something coming back to the pc
community. 

The important thing with APT is that is designed and owned by permaculture,
a condition of approval is that it under annual review by the permaculture
'industry', i.e. practitioners as well as teachers. Even though it may be
delivered in mainstream institutions like TAFE and high schools it is driven
by permaculture grassroots through PIL membership and participation. That in
my mind represents a quantum leap in permaculturing the mainstream.

Robyn Francis



on 17/7/03 5:57 AM, John Schinnerer at john@eco-living.net wrote:

> Aloha,
> 
>> Regarding TAFE, it will be interesting to see if it assumes the bulk of
>> teaching work in permaculture and if the present community-based
>> providers remain competitive.
> 
> Hmmm, so is that funtionally equivalent to tossing out the "cooperation
> instead of competition" philosophy?
> 
>> It is too early to tell so it will be
>> interesting to watch. In this respect it is interesting to note that in
>> Sydney, where PDCs were offered by a couple community-based training
>> providers, after TAFE started to offer the course nobody from the
>> community sector has found it realistic to offer the PDC.
> 
> Sounds like you've answered the question for Sydney.  Is TAFE planning to
> "share the surplus?"  What happens for those former PDC providers?  "Sorry
> mate, that's how 'the system' (e.g. 'the mainstream') works, you're not
> competitive any more?"
> 
> I'd rather permaculture 'the mainstream' (which IMO is a dangerously
> mythical over-generalization anyhow) than mainstream permaculture.
> 
> That's how I take Holmgren's comments on planners, architects, doctors,
> managers, etc. etc. who think permaculturally.
> 
> 
> 
> John Schinnerer, MA
> -------------------------
> - Eco-Living -
> Cultural & Ecological Designing
> People - Place - Learning - Integration
> john@eco-living.net
> http://eco-living.net
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