Training of Trainers at Findhorn Ecovillage – Could you train environmental trainers?

Upcoming Gaia Education ‘Training of Trainers’ will catalyse change on local and global levels.

Published reports by IPCC and WWF are demanding a transformative response from communities everywhere. We are faced with the challenge of redesigning human impact on earth at local, regional and planetary scales within the lifetime of the generations alive today.

Gaia Education’s courses enable people everywhere to contribute to this necessary transformation by improving skills, regenerative literacy and the capacity for whole systems design.

Our Training of Trainers in Findhorn, Scotland – starting 12 October – will answer an international demand for forward-looking, innovative educators. It will support facilitators who can build capacity for regionally-focussed regenerative development and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at local level.

Professional pathway

All of Gaia Education’s courses have a ‘glocal‘ focus, catalysing change at local and regional levels to scale-out global impact with over 100 partner organisations on six continents.

The Training of Trainers, which is also referred to as ToT, is a course organised by Gaia Education that helps people deepen their experience of how to teach, facilitate and train people to become more effective local and regional change agents on the path to sustainability and regeneration.

The ToT is part of Gaia Education’s ‘professional pathway’ to becoming an official ​Gaia Education Certified Trainer​. The ToT is the next step on our learning journey after a learner has completed the 125-hour face-to-face ‘​Ecovillage Design Education​’ programme, and at least one of the four dimensions of the ​Gaia Education Design for Sustainability​ online programme.

The path towards working as a trainer and facilitator within our global network is open once the learner has completed the ToT and passed a final interview,

Participants who successfully complete the course will be able to coordinate face-to-dace as well as ​project-based learning programmes taking place in 50 countries​.

Regenerative future

The curriculum primarily focuses on developing core skills of participatory facilitation and learning.

Participants are equipped with the skills and methodologies to facilitate transformative learning environments and host multi-stakeholder conversations that enable collaborative action.

Capacity building at the scales of communities, cities and bioregions is a critical aspect of the transition towards a world that works for all. Gaia Education has partnered with the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) to work together with other organisations on supporting the implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 at local levels.

In the face of this urgent, monumental task, the upcoming seven day Training of Trainers in Findhorn offers you an opportunity to become an active part of the change you would like to see in the world.

It will enable your to help others in your community to come together and co-create projects that implement the SDGs locally, build community resilience and contribute towards a regenerative future.

Sustainability educators

The Findhorn ToT will be facilitated by Gaia Education trainers with decades of experience in their role as facilitators of positive change.

The trainers of this year’s ToT Findhorn include May East​​, CEO of Gaia Education and UNITAR Fellow. East is a renowned sustainability practitioner, educator and designer who has been leading many sustainability educators across the globe delivering capacity building activities in 50 countries in both rural and urban contexts.

She has specialised in working with intergovernmental agencies, educational institutions, and the United Nations in the creation of policy guidelines for sustainable development. She has been named as one of the world’s 100 Global Sustain Ability Leaders by ABC Carbon three times in a row.

Jane Rasbash​​, co-founder of the Grassroots Leadership Training, works in sustainable development using an empowerment and engaged spirituality approach. Jane is based in Findhorn Ecovillage, and has taken a significant part in the delivery of Ecovillage Design Education programmes in Findhorn, Sieben Linden, Myanmar and Thailand.

Jane is also a life coach who mentors leaders in the South, often working in incredibly challenging situations.

Get involved

Develop your core skills of participatory facilitation and learning to unleash the creativity inherent in edge work. The next Training of Trainers programme in Findhorn will run from 12-18 October 2019.

Find more information about the upcoming ToT Findhorn here​.