Transition Training
With the exponential growth in Transition Initiatives around the country, the need has rapidly arisen for training in the basics of the approach for new communities coming on board.
Training for Transition, founded by Sophy Banks and Naresh Giangrande, has responded to this need by continuing to deliver high quality practical and inspiring training, in the UK and beyond...
We've now established and are developing four training courses that cover the following areas:
- Training for Transition for core groups within transition initiatives
- Training the trainers to build a team of people who can deliver the 2-day Transition Training course
- Giving talks on Transition to raise awareness
- Leadership in Transition on authentic leading within a transition context
Training for Transition - for new Transition projects
Training for Transition is a 2-day "fundamentals" course for those wishing to know how to set up, run, and maintain a successful transition initiative. It is packed with imaginative and inspiring ways to delve into both the theory and practice of Transition - check out the full details regarding content.
The first Training for Transition was held on 19/20-Oct-07 in Totnes, and there have now been 9 further trainings. This training has achieved what it set out to achieve, to inspire, encourage, and inform people who wish to undertake the transition process. There is plenty of glowing feedback from the first workshop and subsequent ones- see below, and now increasing evidence that those initiatives who attend the training find setting up and successfully creating a Transition Town an easier, faster, and more convivial process. By learning the nets and bolts of what has worked in other Transition Initiatives, it empowers you to creatively apply Transition in your local.
| Location | Dates | Booking |
| Up and coming confirmed Training For Transition dates | ||
| Totnes | 13/14-Sep-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | FULL |
| Forest of Dean | 27/28-Sep-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | OPEN FOR BOOKINGS - email us to book |
| London- The Hub, Islington | 11/12-Oct-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | FULL |
| Leicester | 25/26-Oct-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | OPEN FOR BOOKINGS - email us to book |
| Norwich | 1/2-Nov-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | OPEN FOR BOOKINGS - email us to book |
| London- The Hub, Islington | 22/23-Nov-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | OPEN FOR BOOKINGS - email us to book |
| Up and coming provisional training dates | ||
| Gubbio, Italy at the Libera Università di Alcatraz | 18/19 October | OPEN FOR BOOKINGS - email us to book |
| Taunton, Somerset | 8/9 or 15/16 November | OPEN FOR BOOKINGS - email us to book |
| Completed trainings | ||
| Liverpool | 5/6-Jul-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | - |
| Dundee, Scotland | 29/29-Jun-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | - |
| Dublin, Ireland | 9/10/11-May-08 (Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday) | - |
| Llandeilo | 26/27-Apr-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | - |
| London | 29/30-Mar-08 (Saturday and Sunday) at The Hub, Islington | - |
| Totnes | 15/16-Mar-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | - |
| Hereford | 23/24-Feb-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | - |
| Totnes | 26/27-Jan-08 (Saturday and Sunday) | - |
| London | 8/9-Dec-07 | - |
| Bristol | 2/3-Nov-07 | - |
| Totnes | 19/20-Oct-07 | - |
Wanna set up a course near you?
If you would like to organise a training for groups near you please email us at Transition Training to discuss how this might happen.
Who can attend
- we want to keep this as open as possible, while recognising that existing official transition groups are able to take this learning back and put it to immediate use in their current active projects
- we recommend that two individuals from each community attends - that way the knowledge is shared and there isn't just one person with "the knowledge". Not that we think there are any megalomaniacs out there, but, y'know, just in case...
How to register for courses
Click on the links in the table above to register your interest in a specific course and don't forget to include the names of the individuals likely to attend.
- we are now offering enough courses so it's "first come first served" - and we hope to balance out the mix of people, based on size of town/city, geography, how long you've been going, official/unofficial Transition Initiatives
- If there are still places on the course you want to attend, reserve your place by sending in a deposit of £40
- payable to "Transition Network"
- send to: Naresh Giangrande, Transition Network, 43 Fore St, Totnes, Devon, TQ9 5HN, UK for the courses in Totnes or organised by Transition Network.
- For other courses please contact the organiser who will instruct you on who to pay and where to send your deposit.
- we'll follow up with full course details and joining instructions when we have received your deposit
Training for Transition - Content
The course is designed to give a detailed introduction to the most important skills necessary to successfully set up, develop, and run a Transition project in your locality. It is designed for people who are already in a group working to achieve this, or are thinking of creating such a group.
At the end of the course participants will:
- have a clear understanding of the context for transition towns, the current global situation and the transformational possibilities that arise from climate change and peak oil and gas
- know what the TT model is – Including an in depth look at the key 12 steps from inspiration, setting up the initiating group, all the way to having active and effective working groups
- have experienced a joint visioning process
- understand how to organise effective meetings such as public talks, open space days and small theme working groups
- understand the purpose and principles of an Energy Descent Plan
- have the outline of an effective and inspiring talk on Transition Towns
- have formed useful contacts with other Transition initiatives, and met some of those involved in the Totnes project and Transition Network
- have a plan of action for themselves and their locality
This training will follow the transition model in paying attention to both the outer work and the inner work necessary for a successful transition process. This will be a participatory process, with delegates invited to share their own experience and learn from the many different transition initiatives represented at each course.
We also have a more in depth explanation of the training content for this course.
Costs
We're aiming for £100 for the two days. If you can't afford the £100, then perhaps others in your group can make up the shortfall. Bursaries are available, but we don't give them away. Well, actually, we do, but I'm sure you know what I mean.
Trainers
The trainers are Naresh Giangrande and Sophy Banks, both long-term contributors to Transition Town Totnes initiative.
- Naresh: Focaliser of the TTT Energy Group and co- founder of the Transition Town Totnes project, Naresh has been involved in designing, running and evolving many of the events and groups that have been at the heart of the enormously successful TTT initiative. He has lived and worked in an eco community and was Managing Director of his own company.
- Sophy: Sophy jointly focalises the “Heart and Soul” group in Totnes that focuses on the psychology of change, as well as coordinating the TTT central office and systems. A trainer for over 20 years she has worked as an engineer, information systems consultant and psychotherapist and has considerable experience of voluntary sector and community projects.
Become a Trainer for Transition
In October 2007 the Transition Network training team launched a two-day course aimed at helping new transition initiatives to create dynamic and effective projects. This course has proved popular around the country and beyond, and we need to expand the team of people able to deliver this training.
The course originators are therefore offering a four-day in depth training for those who would like to join this team.
Just to give some scope to this training need, in the UK alone there are 60 cities, 11,000 towns and villages and innumerable smaller settlements. Every single one of them will undergo some type of energy descent in the near term future. The smart ones will be doing it proactively, perhaps even trained up by you...
Course content
- An in depth examination of the main underlying principles of transition including systems approach, vision, resilience, why transition is both inner and outer – and viral, and the importance of inclusion and awareness raising.
- The early transition process in depth - from initiation to working groups
- Structuring a Training for Transition course including facilitation styles, aims and outcomes
- Background material: peak oil, climate change, organisational structure, change models
- Joining the Network pool of trainers - structure, agreements, support and so on.
Participants will be encouraged to share their own ideas and experience both in training methodology and in their Transition or other projects. We expect that the “Training for Transition” course will itself evolve further during this event.
Becoming a Transition Network Trainer
If you want to join the Transition Network team that are developing and delivering training for transition you also need to show that you have considerable experience of:
- Creating and delivering training to high standards to a range of audiences
- Working in a transition project
- Understanding and commitment to the principles and practice of transition
Dates and details
| Up and coming "Train the Trainers" course dates | |||
| Location | Dates | Booking | Costs |
| None scheduled at the moment | email Naresh georgegiangrande@yahoo.co.uk to register your interest | ||
Learn how to give Transition Talks
Transition talk training – this is a one day course in how to give an effective talk on Transition, aimed for people in a Transition Initiative to help them raise awareness and draw other groups into the process.
It'll cover Peak Oil, Climate Change and the mechanics of Transition, along with the subtler subject of the inner transition we all need to go through if we're going to reestablish an harmonious relationship with the planet.
By the end of the training day, you'll be armed with a solid presentation that you can adopt to your own style, a set of facts and figures to underpin your talk, an understanding of some of the deeper aspects of transition, and a new level of confidence to deliver the presentation with flair, authority and maybe a bit of humour too. We delivered the first instance of it in Totnes on 12-Jan-08, and it was extremely well received.
| Where | Dates | Booking | Costs |
| Totnes | 12-July-08 | OPEN FOR BOOKINGS - email us to book or phone Naresh on 07812 998047 | £35 |
| Leicester | To be announced | OPEN FOR BOOKINGS - email us to book | TBA |
We'll be announcing other instances of this course later, but in the meantime, if you want to request to have this training in your part of the country please email Naresh - "georgegiangrande [AT] yahoo [DOT] co [DOT] uk" at Transition Training to discuss how this might happen.
We can't promise to kit you out with the charisma (or hairstyle) of a true legend, but there's a latent performer in all of us, and if we can harness that passion, we all have the capacity to get an audience fired up and wanting to take action.
Leadership in Transition
Learning, connecting, leading – a two-day Transition Training event, exploring leadership within a Transition perspective.
We felt that with so many communities embarking on the transition journey, now was the time to launch a training event that targets individuals who are stepping into leadership roles within transition initiatives throughout the network.
The first instance of this course has been postponed.
Description and location
This course will provide a facilitated space for you to deepen your learning of how best to build momentum and achieve the two key goals of transition - dramatically lower carbon emissions and significantly higher levels of community resilience. You'll be sharing lessons and insights with your fellow travellers, learning from the collective wealth of experience in the group how not only to develop your own skills of leadership but also to nurture those same aptitudes in individuals within your own transition team back home.
We've selected Embercombe in Devon as the venue because it's an ideal location for connecting with the land, for slowing down, taking stock, building new relationships, celebrating, and for readying ourselves for the onward journey.
The two days will provide a chance to act, as well as to be still. It will be a gently guided and facilitated experience where conversations will ebb and flow and where the process will be one of emergence. There will be opportunities to work in the market garden, to help out with building projects, prepare food, sit around campfires, tell stories, learn bush-crafts and green woodworking, and draw inspiration from each other.
Who it's for
Who it's for: those who have been active in their own community's transition initiative who recognise, or who are curious about the informal or formal leadership role that they and others might play at the local level. It is also for those that want to exchange ideas about community, change, and transformation from a systemic perspective.
We're expecting, as with all trainings, that insights will emerge during the event that help shape the way the transition network develops in the widest sense.
Who it's NOT for: The event is not designed for those who are new to Transition Town activity, or who are looking to start a Transition Town initiative. The training most suitable for this purpose is the Training for Transition.
The cost of the course is being finalised - check back soon.
Find out more
If you want to find out more about this training, please email Mike Jones of Transition Stroud who came up with idea originally (major kudos there), is currently working on the course content and is also the initial point of contact for this course. If Mike can't answer your questions about this course, no one can - so think up some tough ones for him.
Dates and details
| Up and coming "Leadership in Transition" course dates | |||
| Location | Dates | Booking | Costs |
| Embercombe in Devon | To be announced | Mike Jones mike@quantumconsultancy.co.uk | £tbd |