The course is following the official curriculum for the Ecovillage Design Education developed by gaia education encompassing five dimensions that are crucial to sustainability: ecology, economy, worldview, social and integral design.
The course will include a full 72hours course in Permaculture Design accredited by the German Permaculture Academy, which serves as the required basis for a further education to become an accredited Permaculture Designer.

Further specific objectives:

The participants will be supported in organising similar courses in their home countries. They will be connected to the existing official European networks of mutual support and exchange related to Ecovillage and Permaculture Design.

Course methodology:
There will be both formal and informal learning opportunities. The nature of the course is interactive. Most days will start with workshops by experienced teachers on various topics within the main fields mentioned before. We will work with many different forms of providing knowledge and expertise (power point, movies, lectures, discussion groups, action learning processes, self-exploration, scripts, etc.). We will engage in participatory group processes to enhance deep exchange and the creative design of cooperation and partnerships amongst participants (World Work, The Forum, The Way of Council, World Café, Open Space, …).
Afternoons will be dedicated more to experiential learning in the areas of appropriate technology, applied design skills, personal development, and leadership skills. Permaculture and other design methodologies will be applied on concrete ecological as well as social projects deriving from the creativity and interest of the group members.

The participants will be encouraged to present their own projects, focussing on new developments and examples of best practice. Participants will share life and case stories in order to learn from the wealth of human experience in different cultural settings. Opportunities will be provided for participatory teaching to practice the shared methods (experiential and action learning). Cultural celebrations will give a chance to exchange games, songs and stories. Evenings will be dedicated to meeting and exchanging for inter-cultural awareness. Participants will learn how to achieve the objectives mentioned above while building a community of active and connected students.
The course also includes insights into the organisational structure, the overall design and best practices in educational activities within the hosting Ecovillage of Sieben Linden (www.siebenlinden.de), a centre for adult education in sustainability; this will serve as a living example and field of practice for the themes of the course.

Participants will be offered (limited) support for giving similar courses Europe-wide. They will be invited to further studying opportunities allowing them to conclude their education as “Permaculture Designers”. They will receive a dvd with the material from the workshops and presentations and a printed copy of the EDE-curriculum. They will receive the final report including a summary of the group's feedback to the organizers and facilitators.

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