Group Diploma Adventure (Online) 2025
Join Looby & Delvin to Expand your Design Skills
An adventure in learning and designing. Join like minded people to build momentum, activate creativity, get support and have fun completing Diploma designs. This group diploma adventure will support you to complete a Foundation Certificate in Applied Permaculture Design with the Permaculture Association by completing 2 designs. This is an important and achievable milestone along the path to the full diploma in Applied Permaculture Design.
Dates
next intake Oct 2025 - runs until April 2026
Cost
£360 for 6 months - monthly installments possible
Facilitators
Delvin Solkinson
Course Description
The foundation certificate is an advanced programme that follows the PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate). For your diploma you create a portfolio of designs. This will give you a strong grounding in permaculture design and develop your skills as a designer.
To learn more about the Permaculture Diploma programs go to
- Permaculture Association UK Diploma www.diploma.permaculture.org.uk
On this 6 months programme you will be guided to design, do and document 2 designs. On completion of these designs you will receive a Foundation certificate in Applied Permaculture Design.
Included in this GDA -foundations programme are
- 6 x 2 hour monthly group calls
- Induction tutorial in small groups 2 hours with Looby or Delvin
- 2 small group tutorials - 2 hours with Looby or Delvin
- 2 design assessments
- Dedicated online platform and community
- Peer to peer support groups
- Online Design Adventure courses with Looby and guests
- Responsiveness from Delvin to emails
After this you can decide whether you want to continue on to the full diploma and complete a portfolio of 10 designs.
There is also the option to join Looby and Delvin (along with Chris Evans and Grace Solkinson) for the in person Advanced Design Adventure in Sept 2025. This is a great opportunity to meet others on the Group Diploma Adventure. More details here
Join Looby Macnamara, one of the co-founders and developers of the Cultural Emergence toolkit and key pioneer of the social permaculture movement. She created the Design Web and 7 Ways to Think Differently. Highly experienced with in-person and online facilitation, she brings a unique set of tools to support your journey as a designer. She is a Senior Diploma Tutor with the Permaculture Association and prolific teacher at Applewood Permaculture Centre. Her books, videos, podcasts, , and courses have uplifted people all over the world.
Accompanied by Delvin Solkinson, co-creator of Visionary Permaculture at CoSM as well as the Permaculture Design Deck, Game and Notes. With 20 years of permaculture teaching and facilitation experience, Delvin shares a growing design toolkit with creativity and passion. He is the Diploma Program Coordinator for the Permaculture Institute and a Diploma Tutor with the Permaculture Association. His articles, videos, books and tools are all offered freely as downloads online.
Inspire your learning journey to become a better designer of life and livelihood, home and garden, relationships and community. Apply the tools of Permaculture and Cultural Emergence to unlock the next level of your life including any projects you want to focus on. A practical opportunity to develop Permaculture and Cultural Emergence skills, moving you forward on your Diploma designs with an uplifting group of collaborators.
Who the Course is For
The course is for anyone who has done a Permaculture Design Course and wishes to continue developing themselves as a designer, in particular to develop the people side of designing. It is also open to anyone who is already enrolled in the diploma and wishes to have some support to complete 2 more designs.
It is for anyone who wants to deepen their commitment to permaculture, their own self development, and making the planet a better place.
The course caters to people at different places on their learning journey. The experience you bring to the course and how you apply it will determine what you get out of it. For example, advanced people may start thinking about how they would teach the information, facilitate online learning and pursue their Diploma Tutor Level education. Leonardo da Vinci said ’Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’. In this light our course will be accessible to all experience levels and can range from introductory to advanced based on how participants approach and apply the learnings.
Prerequisites for enrollment - you need to have completed your PDC Permaculture Design Course to enroll in the diploma.
Appreciation from Past participants
"I immediately got excited when Looby and Delvin introduced the idea of a Group Diploma Adventure! Growing towards my Permaculture Diploma not as a lonely desk activity in dark winter months, but an adventure! With like minded people! The possibility to connect and cooperate and learn also from each other. This adventure gives me the feeling that there is a flow or natural pace of things and that I am not the only one being responsible for this flow."
Barbara Scheltus - van den Berg
www.bogatasuma.eu
"Being part of the Group Diploma Adventure gives me momentum and inspiration on my diploma journey. I feel hugely supported and grateful; engaging with the group, the tutors and the design processes help in manifesting my vision of integrating connection, wholeness, play, and creativity in my work and life. The many gifts each step of the way, and the excitement as to what the journey ahead might hold, lifts my spirit."
Helene Bohler
www.permakultur.no
“Deep immersion in the Group Diploma Adventure and it's Design Web processes make my life more flowing with ease and grace. Weaving and connecting all the Design Web anchor points nourishes all aspects of my life. It supports me to be more productive, optimizing my fullest potential with creativity. The Group Diploma Adventure creates a container of group coaching that is very beneficial. It is cost-effective, powerful in reaching more people, and creates collaborations in participatory design, a great opportunity to journey with other apprentices as part of a learning guild.”
Dharlyn Gomez
"Thank you so much to Looby for your generosity, wisdom and support over my Diploma journey. The whole process has been transformative, and your guidance has been quietly present throughout. Thank you also for the opportunities to ‘come into the light’, and the encouragement to move more deeply into work with Cultural Emergence. The process has been one of creative rediscovery - and affirmation of the radical interconnectivity of all things. Thank you for your insight, youramazing vision, and your kindness along the way.
Kate Gathercole
Practical Information
We recommend that you give yourself around 3-4 hours a week average to engage in this programme. This will be split between live design cafes, small group tutorials, peer to peer support calls, online course material, and your own design work.
This is just an average and some weeks might have much more and some much less. We offer this guidance so that you can consider whether this is the right time for you.
Timeline
Live group design cafes with Looby and Delvin (on zoom)
All design cafes are on Monday 6-8pm UK time
Oct 20th, Nov 10th, Dec 8th, Jan 12th, Feb 9th, March 2nd
Group celebration call 13th April
Small group tutorials
(these dates will be scheduled with people)
- Induction tutorial 20th Oct
- Online design adventures course Autumn
- 1st small group tutorial- Nov/Dec
- 1st assessments Dec/Jan
- 2nd tutorial - Jan
- 2nd assessment - Feb/march
- 3rd tutorial - march/april - celebrating foundation
Online design adventure courses
These will be available for you to do alongside this programme at your own pace.
Peer to peer support groups
You will be placed in support groups where you organise regular check ins.
How to Apply
For enquiries and to apply please contact:
Email Delvin at delvin@permaculture.org
Places limited to 24
Fees
Included in the programme are
- 6 x 2 hour monthly group calls
- Induction tutorial 2 hours with Looby and Delvin (20th Oct)
- 2 small group tutorials - 2 hours with Looby or Delvin
- 2 design assessments
- Dedicated online platform and community
- Peer to peer support groups
- Online Design Adventure courses with Looby and guests
- Email support from Delvin
The first 6 months will focus on completing 2 designs which will give you a Foundation Diploma certificate (Certificate in Applied Permaculture Design : A Foundation to the Diploma). After two designs are completed, you can evaluate whether or not you continue on to do the eight more designs to complete a full Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design.
Facilitators & Venue
Looby Macnamara is co-developer of the Cultural Emergence toolkit with Jon Young. She is an experienced permaculture teacher, author and designer. She is author of 4 books, Cultural Emergence, People and Permaculture and 7 Ways to Think Differently.
People and Permaculture is the first book to directly translate the principles and design methods of permaculture from land to people. Looby enjoys using creative teaching methods to create a fun and collaborative learning environment.
"Looby's fluency in design tools and frameworks were a vital key to me completing the diploma effectively and deepening my permaculture practice and later work. Looby's grounded expertise and creative insight, means she is an excellent mentor for supporting you to use the diploma process to maximise your productive edges."
Jasmine Dale www.beingsomewhere.net
Delvin Solkinson is a community gardener, student and teacher from a tiny coastal rainforest village in British Columbia, Canada with his wife Grace. He has done a PDC, Diploma and Masters Degree with Bill Mollison, a Doctorate with Larry Santoyo, 2 other Diplomas, 13 teacher trainings & 13 advanced courses. Diploma Program Co-ordinator at Permaculture Institute, Diploma Tutor with Permaculture Association and currently pursuing a Post-Doc in Permaculture Education.
For many years Delvin and Grace lived and worked CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors where they created the visionary permaculture program. Currently he is an Instructor on the Permaculture Diploma program at Pacific Rim College and lead permaculture instructor at Soil Food Web School. He collaborates with his beloved wife Grace to create free learning and teaching tools, write articles and make videos. www.pemaculturedesign.earth, www.visionarypermaculture.com
“I really appreciate Delvin’s way of teaching and I truly believe it is his gift. Delvin brings ritual together with deep learning. I always come away from a class motivated by his passion, impeccable choice of words and the skillful ways in which he engages others. I feel honoured to learn from him!”
Sarita Moody www.somlanddesign.com
Applewood Permaculture Centre is a 20 acre smallholding, in Herefordshire, UK. Looby and Chris are lucky to have had this as their family home with their 2 daughters as well as a training centre since July 2016. There are various teaching spaces, from heated yurt and barn space to outdoor marquee and open air. There are many diverse habitats here, woodland, orchard, forest gardens, pasture, pool and kitchen gardens. Applewood is a tranquil sanctuary for wildlife and people alike. We are blessed with night times filled with owl hoots and immense starry skies that you’ll get to enjoy round an outside fire.
For regular updates and photos
see our facebook page
