Permaculture Design Certificate
Workstudy / Internship
Earn your Permaculture Design Certificate while working on a premier permaculture demonstration farm in New Zealand.
Our work study internship programme is unique in the world of permaculture education in that it combines best practice teaching and learning with best practice regenerative land management.
The programme balances content, process and reflection, while nurturing systems thinking skills. It’s about developing a way of thinking that recognizes the connections between diverse elements on the farm and how they interact in four dimensions (over time), along with the hands-on skills required to work effectively with cultivated ecologies.
Our work study internship programme is unique in the world of permaculture education in that it combines best practice teaching and learning with best practice regenerative land management.
The programme balances content, process and reflection, while nurturing systems thinking skills. It’s about developing a way of thinking that recognizes the connections between diverse elements on the farm and how they interact in four dimensions (over time), along with the hands-on skills required to work effectively with cultivated ecologies.
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The Facts
Kaitiaki Farm is a 5.1 hectare (13 acre) property located 4 km outside Whanganui, New Zealand. We operate as a mixed-use operation leveraging niche markets for annual crops, perennial crops, nursery trees and animals. Our primary interests lie in holistic land management, regenerative agriculture, market gardening, appropriate technology, renewable energy and human-scale solutions, as well as home building and renovation. Food and accommodation are included in the internship with the exceptions of personal treats and drinks. We accept 2-4 interns at a time from all over the world. Interns are usually engaged three days @ 5-6 hours and two days @ 3-4 hours per week. Animal care is a daily requirement. The living arrangement is familial - you are truly a part of our family while you are here with us (and for ever after!). We dine every evening as a family and our energetic children are a large part of family life. |
The Curriculum
We spend a lot of time teaching and talking. This slows down our work but makes the internship what it is – an endless series of ‘teachable moments’. It is also the best way to earn a PDC. This type of learning experience is extremely rare anywhere in the world and would not come from a book or standard PDC course. That said, we have a huge library of books and lots of connections locally and nationwide of practicing permaculturists. It is internationally recognised that 'Permaculture: a Designers' Manual' by Bill Mollison is the basis for the PDC curriculum. Our curriculum builds on the Designers' Manual and extends the scope to address topics specific to New Zealand and relevant to our specific farm and current events and developments in the field. It is inline with the curriculum discussed by the Permaculture NZ education working group in late 2016. A great benefit of the work-study model of this course is that it provides the opportunity for students to explore in great depth, topics that are of particular interest to them. It also will give you plenty of opportunity to re-visit topics in a practical setting and get immediate feedback. But perhaps the greatest benefit is living and working on an examplar permaculture farm that provides a wide range of design strategies across a diverse landscape. So-called ‘teachable moments’ are the heart and soul of this style of PDC, and what makes it unlike any other. The challenge of this model is that it requires the student to be self-directed to a certain extent in order to ensure that all topics are covered in the time period allotted. Each student has a copy of the curriculum and can check off topics as they are covered. Kaitiaki Farm and it’s holistic management strategy provide inspiration and motivation to immerse oneself in a living four dimensional permaculture design. |
