Trade: We offer a limited amount of work trade positions per course. If accepted, students are required to pay half or more of one of the sliding scale prices, pay a deposit, and be willing to commit to a work schedule (depending upon the work trade job description). We strongly prefer that your work toward the trade be completed by the end of the course, primarily during the growing season. In the interest of supporting the concept of a living wage, and based on data from this webpage (http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/counties/36055), we currently value one hour of work at $15 toward a course fee.
Additionally, work traders are required to submit a personal letter letting us know what your specific skills are and what percentage of the course fee you are requesting to trade for. The deposit is due with your registration form, and without all of the above we cannot consider you registered. The remaining amount is due no later than 10 days prior to the course starting unless otherwise stated.
If you have trouble coming up with your share, consider tuition loans from Permaculture Credit Union.
Scholarship:
Not much cash? You can create your own funding using some of these ideas
-ask family and friends to contribute in exchange for design work after the course. This will also help you build your design portfolio.
-ask family and friends to give you the funding via crowdsourcing and offer them an evening of food and sharing after the course
-throw a fundraising party where you cook for your guests and tell them about permaculture and what you want to do once you have your PDC, they make a contribution
-if you are a college student, you may be able to take this course for credit
-ask your employer if there are professional development funds available
-sell things you have that you don’t need – plants, stuff, clothes
A full RPC scholarship award (100% tuition without exchanging work hours) is very rare. We might consider this for a few to specific people whom we’ve especially wanted in the training, such as agricultural teachers from third world countries, indigenous elders, and physically-disabled activists. If you request a full scholarship without work-trade, please submit a personal letter, and tell us why. Otherwise we’ll assume you’re applying for normal work-trade.
