Context/Background Permaculture is about creating sustainable lifestyles, places, organisations and systems. Graduates of adult permaculture courses report many benefits: new skills, greater confidence, a sense of empowerment, a drive to engage with theit community and become a more active citizen. Many go on to establish social enterprises, small businesses, charities and community projects, creating employment for themselves and others, growing the green economy and helping to bring about a more coherent society. The Permaculture Association is the national organisation overseeing permaculture education in Britain. We need to scale up the provision of permaculture education while assuring & improving its quality. Objectives of the Project Objective 1: scale up To scale up, we need to improve our publicity and marketing to drive demand, and put our operations onto a more financially sustainable footing. Objective 2: improve quality To improve quality, we need to provide training for our less experienced teachers, and CPD for our senior teachers. As our senior teachers' skills are also in demand overseas, we want to help them to "internationalise" their practice by improving their cultural awareness. Number & profile of participants We will have 20 participants from a range of backgrounds, teaching experience, educational attainment. Description of Activities We will send 2 cohorts of 6 new/junior teachers on a specialist permaculture teacher training. This will give them a good grounding in learner-centred pedagogy, creative teaching methods, creating learning communities, course & session design and more. We will send a cohort of 4 experience teachers on a CPD (Continuing Professional Development) course to refresh their skills and keep their practice current. 2 of our teachers will carry out teaching assignments abroad to develop their skills in delivering training in inter/multi-cultural contexts 2 of our office staff will conduct job shadowing activities to gain fresh ideas from one of our partner organisations, focusing in particular on publicity & marketing, improving efficiency of systems & processes and creating more financially sustainable business models. Methodology We will use standard project management approach as the framework, using a Gantt chart and budget spreadsheets. In addition we will use the Europass to set particpants' objectives and monitor achievement. Expected Results & Impact Impact on Participants: 1) Course attendees will gain new skills, knowledge, behaviours and attitudes, which will translate into greater confidence, higher quality/more professional course delivery and new work opportunities. 2) Teaching Assignment participants will gain a greater experience of, and therefore competence in, working in a different cultural context, in particular, working with groups drawn from a range of cultural backgrounds. This will translate into greater confidence to seek international work opportunities and better quality courses when they are successful in securing such work. 3) The staff that undertake job shadowing activities will gain new knowledge & skills, as well as a range of fresh ideas to bring to their day-to-day work and a wider perspective. 4) The expected impacts for the Permaculture Association include: - Greater delivery capacity - Higher quality of provision - Wider reach - More financially sustainable - Better networked at the European level Impact on Target Groups: - Potential adult learners from the general public will gain better access to permaculture education by being more aware of the benefits of - and therefore having greater incentives to engage in - adult learning in this subject. - Existing learners will receive higher quality training from those teachers who have attended training. - Graduates of our courses will gain new insights into some career opportunities. Potential Long Term Benefits - More opportunities for adults members of the general public to gain access to high quality permaculture training - More employment opportunities for European adults in the green economy - A stronger European permaculture network - More active citizens in Europe building a more socially, economically and ecologically just and sustainable society.