Training communities in transition
By Philipp Grunewald 21st June 2023
The work we do at the international level exists to support transition groups and hubs wherever they are. If you cannot find help for your work locally, regionally or nationally, then we exist to support you in your endeavours.
Over the decades we built a wealth of experience and information about the kind of things that people like to be supported with when starting and running transition groups locally. Some of those things can be packaged as training and shared in a systematic way with many people. We are working to re-energise that part of our offering.
Transition Trainers Community of Practice
In a previous post we shared that Don currently leads the Training work at the international level. Don shared that the international Transition Trainers Community of Practice has already been re-established. “Currently, it has 60 certified trainers representing 19 different countries on four continents around the world. We’ve also been hosting monthly Training Conversations to facilitate peer-to-peer learning among trainers”.
These trainers are recognised at the international level (Click here to find out who they are). That has been going on for quite some time but more recently we created a more flexible and inclusive set of criteria; now we got more trainers from different walks of life part of our trainers’ community.
Don goes into a bit more detail when stating that: “We’ve worked on making it more accessible now for people to become trainers, because we want more people to become trainers and offer more trainings around the world. So we have made the Train the Trainers course optional. There’s now other pathways towards official recognition, including having worked with other related groups like The Work That Reconnects or Sociocracy or Permaculture. Those all can now qualify people as Transition Trainers, so that we can draw on those skill sets as well”.
If you are one of those people, Don encourages you to “go to transitiongroups.org/add-trainer to apply to become a trainer. There’s more info there about what that requires and what that means, as well as an application form. Currently, we are reading and evaluating applications twice a year. The next one will be in July. If that’s something you’re interested in, please get your application in sometime this month or next month”.
Support for trainers
We want to ensure that the Transition Trainers get the support they need to be successful at delivering training locally and internationally. A range of things are underway that will support this to happen.
- A Training Support Circle is being established right now. This small group will represent the trainers community of practice and govern their work at the international level.
- A Flexible Framework has been created. This framework helps trainers to create new content. Version 1.0 has been shared with Trainers in the community of practice on June 9th 2023.
- We will be starting to pilot the new Transition Facilitators Training this September (online and in English). This is a Train the Trainers course, helping people to step into a training role within the movement. We hope to be offering this in further languages after the pilot.
- Monthly Training conversations are facilitated peer-to-peer learning sessions relating to Training. We explicitly offer these to the Trainers but others are welcome to join if any of the topics we cover trigger their interest. Recently, we covered diverse topics like “A Living Systems Approach to Transition”, “Creating Harmonious Teaching Environments”, and “Engaging Youth in Transition”. These two hour online sessions are free of charge and can be found on the calendar on the Transition Platform.
- Online spaces for conversations around training are a further offering we have. It is there you find out about our Training conversations and future topics. Additionally, it is the place for engaging with a wide variety of people and topics from across the international transition movement. Join us on the platform if you are interested. Follow this link, click to create an account (top right corner) and login to our social network.
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This article is part of the Transition Training series. In June 2023 we are sharing four short pieces that make transparent where Transition Training is at; this is post 3 out of 4. There are many forthcoming developments in Transition Training and many more opportunities to engage with our Training offerings, as participants as well as facilitators. If you are curious about what is going on check out the other posts in the series.
- Sources of Transition Training: a brief exploration of the origins of Transition Training and its current leadership at the international level.
- Transition trainers – who are they? An introduction to Transition Trainers and how to find the right trainer for you.
- Training communities in Transition: an explanation of the work that is underway at the international level to support Transition Trainers.
- Developing our potential for leadership: considering the way forward for Transition training at the international level