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Permaculture Design Certificate

Earn your Permaculture Design Certificate on a premier permaculture demonstration farm in New Zealand.

Our programme is unique in the world of permaculture 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 2 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. 

Interns come from all over the world for eight to twelve weeks primarily during summer months. They are usually engaged two days @ 5-6 hours and three 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 experience 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 experiential 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 on a 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. 
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The challenge of this model is that it requires learners to be self-directed to a certain extent in order to ensure that all topics are covered in the time period allotted. Each learner 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. 

Dates:
26th February - 26th April.  $750 (with a week off in the middle) FULL

Alongside the permaculture curriculum and farm management education This internship will have a special emphasis on eco home building and farm infrastructure, including heaps of hands-on skill-building using tools and understanding concepts. Projects include: home-made caravan, Home repair and maintenance, FARM SHED, farm shop, animal shelters, fencing, stock yards, deck, reusing materials, pulling nails, compost toilets & more...
May - July dates tBD.  $750 (WITH A WEEK OFF IN THE MIDDLE)
ALONGSIDE THE PERMACULTURE CURRICULUM AND FARM MANAGEMENT EDUCATION THIS INTERNSHIP WILL HAVE A SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON ECO HOME BUILDING AND FARM INFRASTRUCTURE and a good dose of market gardening. 

INSPIRATION THROUGH PERSPIRATION
WORDS FROM PREVIOUS INTERNS. 

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"I HAD THE UNIQUE EXPERIENCE OF REVISITING KAITIAKI FARM ALMOST TWO YEARS AFTER BEGINNING MY PDC. BEING ONE OF THE FIRST TWO INTERNS TO COMPLETE THE CERTIFICATION WITH THE ECO SCHOOL, I SAW QUITE THE TRANSFORMATION. IN THE BEGINNING, WE ALL HAD A LOT TO FIGURE OUT. THE FARM WAS ONLY TWO YEARS OLD AND THE PDC PROGRAM BRAND NEW. REGARDLESS, THE LEBOS WERE READY TO SHARE. BOTH NATURAL-BORN TEACHERS, DANI AND NELSON'S TRULY AMAZING FEAT HAS BEEN WEAVING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES SEAMLESSLY INTO THE EVERYDAY. LIFE LESSONS ABOUND: ON FARMING; ON LIVING AND SHARING SUSTAINABILITY; ON DOING THIS AND MORE WHILE MAINTAINING A LOVE-FILLED HOUSEHOLD. I FELT THIS DURING MY OWN INTERNSHIP BUT WAS BLOWN AWAY BY HOW STREAMLINED FARM-SCHOOL-LIFE HAD BECOME! WITH TIRELESS WORK, PLANNING, TRIAL AND ERROR, THEY'VE ACHIEVED WHAT I SAW THEM SET THEIR SIGHTS ON TWO YEARS EARLIER.
I AM FARMING IN ALASKA THESE DAYS BUT I STILL FIND THE WORDS OF BOTH DANI AND NELSON ECHOING IN MY HEAD (DON'T SET YOUR TOOLS IN THE GRASS THEY'LL BE GONE IN A WEEK...CLOSE EVERY GATE BEHIND YOU...MACKLEMORE IS KING...). THEIR LOVE AND ATTENTION TO THE TASK AT HAND TURNS WORK INTO MEDIATION - A PRACTICE INSTILLED IN ME THAT I STILL EXERCISE DAILY.
KNOWING WHAT CAME OF MY THREE MONTHS AT KAITIAKI FARM, I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF THE DOZENS OF PROCEEDING INTERNS IS EXPONENTIAL." - LIZ

"MY TIME SPENT ON YOUR FARM HAS BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT OF MY MIND AS I MOVE INTO THIS NEW, CHALLENGING PROJECT. I AM VERY GRATEFUL AND PRIVILEGED TO HAVE A WEALTH OF RESOURCES AT MY FINGERTIPS AS I JOIN THE TEAM OF PEOPLE COMMITTED TO SEEING HIS VISION UNFOLD. THAT SAID HE HAS EXPRESSED A PREFERENCE FOR HAND TOOLS, OBSERVATION, AND CONSISTENCY—ALL PRINCIPLES I CAN GET BEHIND. 
I AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING I LEARNED AT THE ECO SCHOOL, AND FIND IT SERENDIPITOUS JUST HOW INCREDIBLY RELEVANT SO MANY OF THE LESSONS I GATHERED THERE ARE TO MY CURRENT AND FUTURE LIFE. I JUST WANTED TO SHARE THIS UPDATE AND LET YOU KNOW HOW DEEPLY YOU HAVE INFORMED AND IMPACTED MY CHOICES RECENTLY, AND MOVING FORWARD." - KAT
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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • Contact
  • Permaculture
  • Forest Schooling
  • Healthy Homes
  • Blog
  • Upcoming Events
  • Friends of The ECO School