Finland

Educational Structures in Finland

There are increasing possibilities for permaculture education in Finland and also more and more people get educated abroad or online. The network is growing and many self-organized learning events are popping up. A conversation about national level organization has been going on for some time. (read more)

Table of content

• Educational System in Finland
• Permaculture organisations, courses and teachers in Finland:
  • Elävän Kulttuurin Koroinen-yhdistys
• Number of courses run in 2012
• Update – How have the Permaculture Educational Structures changed in Finland in the years 2012 – 2014?
• Strengths, Weaknesses and Opportunities (PDF)

Educational System in Finland

The applying association in EPT Partnership was the Elävän Kulttuurin Koroinen, which is a local association in Turku and very actively participating in raising the level of permaculture knowledge in Finland. Many permaculture gatherings have been held in Koroinen recently. At the moment all the courses and workshops are organized either at Koroinen or by an active individual permaculture practitioner somewhere else. 

There are national communication channels hosted by volunteers, a study group in Helsinki and recurring unofficial gatherings in many cities. * permakulttuuritiedotus [at] googlegroups [dot] org (email-list) (300+ members) * forum * facebook-group.

There are two finnisch books on Permaculture: Aikidoa luonnon kanssa (1997) and Riippumaton puutarha (2012). None of the international PC books have been translated in Finnish so far. There has been quite many introductory courses after 2012 led by finnisch PDC holders. Six Permaculture Design Courses in Finland ever, two of them in 1995-1997 and four of them in 2011-2013. Teachers have come from UK (Stephen Nutt, Aranya, George Sobol twice and Peter Cow), the course language has been English. 

A story tells that a finnish couple Riipinen taught one of the PDC's in the 90's. There is no official Diploma Path in Finland yet. Currently five persons based in Finland are on a Diploma Path, all have tutors from UK if they are taking the supported route. Most of them have started 2013 or 2014, and some of them have formed a "diploma guild" that meets regularly to share knowledge. Written by Tanja Korvenmaa & Joel Rosenberg at EPT meeting in Friland, Denmark on 29th of May 2014 top 

Update – How have the Permaculture Educational Structures changed in Finland in the years 2012 – 2014?

Joel Rosenberg and Mari Korhonen, Elävän Kulttuurin Koroinen ry, Finland, interviewed by Monika Frank.

There is a growing interest in Permaculture in Finland; being part of the partnership has built capacity in order to respond to this, like giving more weekend courses with finnish teachers. There are also many more visitors to the finnnish permaculture site and more foreign teachers from UK (known from the meetings), coming to Finland to deliver PDCs in 2013. Finnish apprentice teachers have been on board on these courses and built confidence and motivation to organise and lead the first PDC ion finnish language (since 15 years) in 2014. their quality of teaching has improved through the experience teaching with George Sobol and through inspiring examples of teaching styles seen at the meetings. 5 new people are now enrolled in a pathway to diploma with the British PCA, those people have been inspired by the PDC in Finland. 

As for the creation of a national organisation, this is not urgent yet, but models of how to set up a pathway to diploma have been observed. Knowing what other organisations do and having the information published gives more potential to design their future organisational structures. Especially the visit to the headquarter of the british Permaculture Association in Leeds and Andy Goldrings presentation of the PCA was very inspiring. Finnish EPT participants have also gained from the EPT meetings how to set up group meetings or gatherings and ways of facilitating events. The finnish Pc diploma guild/peer group for people on the pathway has benefited from the EPT meetings because they brought more content to the work of this guild. National EPT meetings have happened and made possible because of the budget of the EPT, it has brought more activists together than before. top