What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is about making clever designs so that very little of your effort is wasted or pointless.  You design your lifestyle to be healthier, cleaner, social and productive.  It is the design that makes Permaculture unique. By design we can make more efficient work and travel and production.

What will I get from a Permaculture Design Course?

A Permaculture Design Course will help you design a better lifestyle for yourself and family.  One of our fundamental principles is to start small and build on this success. By living a better lifestyle we can then implement the basic permaculture principles, ethics and understanding of natural systems in bigger and more complex projects.

What Topics Are Covered In A Permaculture Design Course?

The framework follows the original guidelines by Bill Mollison and the Permaculture Institute. It has been expanded since those early years.

Module 1 - Introduction To Permaculture	Module 2 - Nuts and Bolts of Design	Module 3 - Applied Permaculture Design
Ethics	Soils	Permaculture Village Development
Recycling and Waste disposal (Domestic)	Forests and Trees	Patterns in Design
Natural System And Design Principles	Water	Design for Catastrophe
Cultivated Ecology (Zoning)	Aquaculture and Mariculture	Appropriate Energy Conserving Technology
	Wildlife Management and Biological Pest Control	Supplies
	Buildings and Structures	Recycling (Community and Industrial)
	Classical Landscape Profiles	How Permaculture Trainees Operate

Why Do A Permaculture Design Course?

The most important reason to do a Permaculture Design Course is to build your skills to design a more efficient, co-operative and eco-friendly lifestyle for yourself.  We believe in walking the talk – living the lifestyle that we help others to develop.  This course enables much more. You can develop a specialist field, teach others, set up helpful projects in the community and run a business related to Permaculture.

The Permaculture Design Course PDC helps use the term permaculture in your business and home activities.  The PDC has been an industry accepted level of competency since 1970s when it was introduced by Bill Mollison.  If you do not have any industry accepted level of attainment you may be in breech of the trade practices act in that you may be purporting to be “knowledgeable and trained” in the topic, but may not be able to show due diligence if challenged.

The traditional PDC course runs over 72 hours. When you study online with us you choose how to schedule these hours, e.g. over 3 weeks or 3 months or more.  Our students choose their hours, homework tasks and set their timetable. We offer very flexible interaction to bring out the uniqueness of student real-life situations and build wealth of shared of knowledge in Permaculture. Some students are isolated (hospitalised or on a remote property) some are living in a busy city. Each student is different and we aim to cater for this diversity.

When do our courses start?

Because our tuition is one-to-one you can start on any day and pace the learning to meet your needs.  You have up to 2 years to complete the course. This can and has been extended for people with special needs.  Some participants have completed the course in as little as 2 weeks, most take 3 months part time.

Our Graduate Standard:

We have very high standard of graduates and are proud of them. Many graduates are active practicing permaculture in their lives, writing, manufacturing, or teaching and implementing new projects in permaculture. Because of our commitment to Student focused learning the student responses were and are put back into the course as this is a unique and successful feature of our teaching. This has served to reduce isolation, enhance interaction and build a support network. Students are encouraged to form groups with our other students and contacts in their area or on the internet. We now have students in more than 50 countries. See Our Student Profile.

How Permaculture Trainees Operate

Only Graduates of a permaculture design course are entitled to operate a small business using the word ‘Permaculture’.  Graduates of a permaculture design course can teach the design course to others and are encouraged to be active in their community either: passively by sharing their better lifestyle practice; or actively teaching and encouraging others.  Graduates of a permaculture design course are designated by the Permaculture Institute as “trainee permaculture designers” and must complete at least 2 years work in any permaculture field (as designated below) in order to graduate to your Diploma. You can qualify for your Diploma in any one of 11 different fields. Diplomas are issued by the continental Permaculture Institute (see references). Higher degree may be obtained; contact Bill Mollison at Permaculture Institute, Australia. All design course graduates should maintain a subscription to the Permaculture Journal to keep abreast of news and changes.  Report-writing and client needs, Learn how to write and design permaculture systems professionally for your clients. Also, how to avoid common errors in Design for clients, Creating work
Student’s contribution.

Student work examples are included in all topics.  Students are encouraged to indicate future work and ideas, volunteer for responsibilities, etc. (Student privacy is respected by the institute).
Graduate’s assessment of the Course.

Students are encouraged to give a broad assessment of the course and tutors. This shall complement the ongoing student assessment records provided at the close of each session.

Accreditation

In The Foundation Year-Book of The Permaculture Academy compiled by Bill Mollison Edition 1993 Updated 2003 it was written: “OWNERSHIP OF THE COPYRIGHT OF THE WORD “PERMACULTURE” (P.C.) The word Permaculture was defined and copyrighted by publications in the Organic Gardening and Farming Society’s newsletter in Hobart, Tasmania in 1975. The word itself was coined by Bill Mollison, as no succinct word or publication had previously been applied to whole system design. In 1978, the publication of Permaculture One established the first book on conscious design of whole landscapes, and again established the word Permaculture as unique. Ownership of the copyright is equally invested (by Bill Mollison) in the Permaculture Institutes and its graduates from a Certificated Permaculture Course. It cannot be given away except to graduates. Copyright was deliberately sought, and the unique name coined so that this system of education could not be pre-empted by existing institutions or government agencies, but belongs to certificated individuals and Permaculture Institutes (as corporate bodies). The intention of the copyright is to keep the educational area (with its considerable goodwill) to those who know what a Permaculture course consists of! No person who is not a course graduate can use this name for profit; all normal uses for purposes of reviews, discussion, news items and so on is permitted, and graduates (but only graduates) of courses can register for-profit enterprises or corporations using this name. Likewise, Permaculture graduates who are appointed to or who belong to other teaching institutions can teach courses; that institution itself, however, cannot use the name for profit, or for raising funds, if its directors are not graduates, nor should any such directors be appointed to Permaculture Institutes or their boards. Non profit Permaculture associations freely use the name, as can any association of people with a common interest in Permaculture, but not for paid or certificated courses. Where non certificated teachers offer paid courses on Permaculture they have been successfully challenged by several graduates, but also invited to attend a full course and to later continue their teaching. Such pirate courses have been found to be more akin to organic farming or ‘new age’ mysticism than applied design, so that the necessity for copyright has been validated. This publication also clearly delineates the controls we must demand for higher degrees, and gives additional facilitation to our graduates by the establishment of a College of Graduates; in effect, a professional association of experienced people.”

Enrollment Information.

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