Diploma Support

We help and support apprentices who are working towards the Diploma in Permaculture Design. We are affiliated to, and regulated by, the Permaculture Institute of North Britain. We also support apprentices who are taking the independent route to the Permaculture Association (Britain) diploma. To be eligible for an apprenticeship, you should have a completion certificate for a 72-hour permaculture design course.

You may contact one of our staff for specific information about our diploma support system, or you may read firther here.

We have been working, with partners, on diploma support systems since 1998, and our diploma apprentices can take full benefit of this experience.You may read further about our history and our development strategy.

Our experience has led us to adopt a distinctive approach, based on the attitude of "the greatest effect for the least effort". In brief:

• our model is one of apprenticeship rather than "adult education"
• our focus is on competence in permaculture design, nothing else
• our approach is person-centred, rather than "one size fits all"
• the main (and the only intended) benefit of the diploma is the recognition of achievement by other designers (e.g. those in in the Institute)
• any payment is totally negotiable between apprentice and mentor - there are no intermediaries
• payments may be made "in kind" as well as in cash
• cash costs are kept to an absolute minimum through these negotiations
• our apprentices only pay for services that they actually need (typically,cash costs are less than £200, all in)
• there are no time limits or deadlines imposed, apprentices work at their own pace
• paperwork (including the apprentice's portfolio of design work) is kept to a minimum - we are all busy people
• our standards for design work are set high
• we are particular about who we take on as apprentices.

The criteria for the award of the diploma that we offer are those published by the Permaculture Institue of North Britain.  Apprentices seeking accreditation from other awarding bodies, both in Britain and internationally, have also found our support services helpful.

A range of support materials for our apprentices is available here.

Our history - how we got here

Our development strategy - where we are going

Proposals for a new University - the Permaculture Academy