There are as many routes into teaching as there are permaculture teachers, but there are certain minimum requirements. There is also support available for aspiring teachers, detailed below.

Association Policy
Permaculture Association policy recommends certain minimum requirements for teachers at different levels:

To act as an apprentice or support teacher, or to lead introductory workshops and courses, teachers should at least hold a permaculture design certificate, have some teaching experience and/or have completed a teaching course.

To lead full design courses, teachers should also hold the diploma in applied permaculture design.

To act as a diploma tutor, tutors should also be diploma holders.

Legislation

Furthermore, in order to teach courses that are wholly or partially funded from public money, legislation now requires that teachers hold the PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) qualification as a minimum. We recommend that all teachers seek to gain this qualification as standard.

Permaculture Teacher Training

Specialist permaculture training of teachers (ToT) courses can help aspiring permaculture teachers to develop their skills and experience, with particular emphasis on creative, participatory and fun teaching methods based on the latest theories about how learning takes place in groups. See the course listing page for details.

Teaching Apprenticeships

We have published the following apprenticeship pathway guidance to support aspiring teachers and give mentors clear guidelines on how to help develop new teachers. The latest version of the proposal is available to download here.

teaching_apprentice_pathway.pdf