by Jo Holleran
Background
I
grew up in the country and have fond memories of childhood days running
free with my Gran on her smallholding and on the small farm where we
lived. My nuclear family was displaced from the rural life by a
compulsory purchase order in the 1970s and we found ourselves plunged
into city living. Looking back, I seem to have spent much of my adult
life trying to work a way back to where I started out!
I
think I first heard about permaculture in the late 1980s and from this
point my interest in the subject and generally getting closer to nature
began to develop.
In
2003, redundancy provided the opportunity for a major lifestyle change
and I relocated to North Yorkshire, embarking on an exciting new career
in horticulture and subsequently specialising in organic techniques and
edible gardens.
I
attended a Permaculture Design Course at Hollybush in Leeds. This
inspired and better equipped me to re-design my life, with a first
livelihood project, ‘Envy Home & Garden’ providing eco-cleaning,
organic garden maintenance and permaculture design services in the
Nidderdale area.
In
2008, my husband and I headed for Central Portugal in search of a more
self-reliant life in the hills. There, we spent a year renovating a
mountain vineyard and olive grove, developing a gravity-fed irrigation
system, some low-impact shelter and creating designs for the land.
Since
2009, I have continued designing and practicing with garden scale sites
in the UK, with an aim of taking permaculture to the mainstream,
expanding the ‘edge.’ I have also worked as a Lecturer at a land based
college, produced land designs for a 2 hectare site in Tuscany and
provided business development input to an emerging green business.
The
Diploma was a hugely moving and life-changing experience for me and
even after ten design cycles, I felt that I was just becoming fluent and
gaining momentum. I wanted to remain connected with all the amazing
people sharing this journey, to grow and develop as a designer and to
share the skills and experience that I have gained so far.
It’s
really important to me that that I continue to improve the standard of
my own design work. I felt that I would learn massively from other
tutors and also that becoming a tutor myself would continue to hold me
to account.
I
have been working as a diploma tutor since my accreditation in 2013 and
am currently available to provide tutorials at my place in France, at
permaculture gatherings in the UK, or in Milton Keynes or North
Yorkshire, where they tie in with my trips back.
Here are some of my reflections on this new journey so far:
Q: What’s going well?
A: I
feel well supported. In depth training is available at Registration and
Assessment levels. I really enjoyed the registration level training and
am booked on the assessment level training in April. The training
courses have been developed by senior tutors and are further supported
by videos and a tutor manual. This means there is always something to
refer to if I’m unsure of anything and additionally, CPD (Continuous
Professional Development) events are held regularly.
As
a new tutor I have had ‘assessment of practice’ and feedback from more
experienced tutors for the tutorial events I have supported so far. This
has been a real help in ensuring that I am on the right track.
In
many ways, the tutor pathway mirrors that of the diploma and so I am
part of a tutor guild. We currently meet every six weeks over Skype and
provide each other with peer support and feedback.
I also have access to the wider tutor network and can raise questions and share experiences via email when I need to.
Q: What challenges have you faced so far?
A: Becoming
a tutor does require a financial investment, to cover the costs of the
training programme. This is something that I needed to think quite
seriously about. However, I have been able to spread the costs over time
as I have progressed through my pathway. To an extent, they have also
been offset as I have started to earn an income from my tutor
activities.
There
are a number of ways that I can influence the number of apprentices
that I support, and so my income. These include: developing a website;
writing articles; teaching on permaculture courses; publishing designs;
attending permaculture events. I have built many of these things into my
tutor pathway.
Q: What are your long term visions and goals as a tutor?
A: I
have a vision of tutoring being an integral part of my life and being
one of a number of ‘right-livelihood’ income streams that enable me to
sustain a more self-reliant and ecologically balanced lifestyle as long
as I live.
I’m
really looking forward to supporting and learning from my apprentices
and especially I’m looking forward to witnessing their accreditation
events.
Q: What are your next achievable steps?
A: The
assessment level training and tutor CPD event in Leeds is a significant
milestone in April. I’m also intending to take opportunities to shadow
other more experienced tutors to learn from how they work with
apprentices.
My
tutor pathway is inter-linked with my permaculture designs and I shall
be continuing with my site development and self-integration projects in
France.
I have been working on my website over the winter and am looking forward to launching it in the near future.
Jo Holleran
Permaculture Practitioner, Designer and Diploma Tutor
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