Category Archives: Courses

Orchard Workshops: Songs for the earth: Monday, 28th July

Songs for the earth with Jane Lewis

Monday, 28th July 7 – 9pm

£6/2 con­ces­sions
Venue: Donkeyfield Community Orchard, Daiches Brae, near Brunstane Station

Come and learn some simple har­mony songs  around the bonfire and amongst the fruit trees in Donkeyfield Community Orchard. All songs will be taught by ear. All welcome!

Please book by July 21st. Contact Eve: eve@pedal-porty.org.uk or 07724 825 434

Orchard Workshops: Learn to make a Pea cone: Sunday, 29th June

The first in a short series of 

WORKSHOPS AT DONKEYFIELD ORCHARD 

Daiches Brae, near Brunstane Station

Pea cone workshop with Anna Leibmann

Sunday, 29th June 11 – 3pm, £30 (there are a few con­ces­sion­ary places, please con­tact us for details)

Learn to make a beau­ti­ful wil­low pea cone to sup­port your peas, or oth­er climb­ing plants. All mater­i­als provided, but bring your own lunch.

Please book by June 22nd. Contact Eve:
eve@pedal-porty.org.uk or 07724 825 434

Wassail singing workshop

There will be a singing work­shop to learn some tra­di­tion­al and some new was­sail­ing songs for the PEDAL was­sail on Wednesday 15th January at 7.00 – 9.00pm at 7 Rosefield Avenue.  Cost £5 per per­son to raise money for the orch­ard.  All wel­come — songs will be taught by ear so no singing exper­i­ence or abil­ity to read music required.  Children and young people wel­come provid­ing they are able to con­cen­trate and join in. Please con­tact Jane Lewis if you wish to come.

Introduction to Organic Vegetable Gardening, Bridgend Allotments, Edinburgh

This intro­duct­ory course will give you a ground­ing in all you need to know to start grow­ing your own food. Sundays over 8 weeks (25 March — 13 May), or over two full days (10 and 17 June). £60/45. Contact Chris 0131 664 9559 or chrism.bgc@gmail.com.

Getting Scotland Self-building

The Scottish Self-build Forum are host­ing a one-day work­shop on how to increase the num­ber of people build­ing their own home, on Wednesday 21st September. The day will explore the oppor­tun­it­ies for a more access­ible self build sec­tor through­out Scotland, to help boost loc­al eco­nom­ies and provide bet­ter, more afford­able (and we hope more car­bon neut­ral!) homes. The event is free for up to two del­eg­ates per organ­isa­tion. More inform­a­tion is avail­able here.

Setting up and Sustaining a Community Garden, Dundee, 18th May

This event is organ­ized by Urban Roots, a com­munity led envir­on­ment­al char­ity. The pro­gramme for the day will depend on par­ti­cipants’ needs – have your say on the Booking Form when you reserve a place.

Booking forms can be down­loaded at  www.farmgarden.org.uk/scotland For fur­ther inform­a­tion please con­tact Naomi Knights, tel: 0131 623 7058 or email: naomi@farmgarden.org.uk

 

An Introduction to Organic Vegetable Gardening

Bridgend Growing Communities

Interested in grow­ing your own fruit and veget­ables? Not sure where to begin? This intro­duct­ory course at the Bridgend Allotments will give you a ground­ing in all you need to know to start grow­ing your own food. Continue read­ing

Sustainability courses for communities and organisations

Changeworks has just released 26 new dates for 14 dif­fer­ent train­ing courses that can help com­munit­ies and organ­isa­tions become more sustainable.

They range from prac­tic­al tech­niques such as Communicating Climate Change, to tech­nic­al issues such as an Introduction to Hard to Treat Homes. Take a look at the Changeworks web­site for a full list of courses and dates.

Courses cost from £99 + VAT, but if you apply for sup­port from Skills Development Scotland or the Low Carbon Skills Fund, you can get 50% refun­ded (see below). Please note that the dead­line for both funds is 31 March 2011.

1. Flexible Training Opportunities funding from Skills Development Scotland

This fund­ing gives organ­isa­tions with under 150 employ­ees the oppor­tun­ity to apply for up to £5,000 towards employ­ee train­ing costs. Funding is avail­able for up to 10 employ­ees per busi­ness and the money is not a loan so there’s no need to pay it back. SDS will refund 50% of the cost of up to 10 train­ing courses with a max­im­um value of £500 per course. And it’s flex­ible, so 10 employ­ees can do one course each, or one employ­ee can do 10 courses, with any com­bin­a­tion in between.

Click here to find out more. For advice on how to apply, call free on 0800 783 6000

2. Low Carbon Skills Fund from Asset Skills Scotland

The Low Carbon Skills Fund is avail­able to any employ­er with few­er than 250 staff with­in Asset Skills’ foot­print, which includes hous­ing, prop­erty, facil­it­ies man­age­ment, sur­vey­ing and energy advice, to access a 50% refund against the cost of train­ing in any aspect of low car­bon technology/energy efficiency/microrenewables. Up to 25 train­ing ses­sions can be fun­ded per employ­er. The train­ing must be com­plete by 30 June 2011 and applic­a­tions must be received by 31 March.

For fur­ther inform­a­tion about the Low Carbon Skills Fund, click here. In order to apply for the 50% refund, please in the first instance con­tact Tim Pogson.

Finish Your Food Training Course

CHANGEWORKS PRESENTS…

THE SCOTTISH WASTE EDUCATION SUPPORT PROGRAMME’S

‘FINISH YOUR FOOD’

One Day Training Course

Reducing Food Waste in Schools and Communities

***HURRY! SPECIAL OFFER***

***ONLY £95!!***

One third of food is wasted when it could be reduced, reused and recycled. This fab­ulous food waste train­ing course will equip you with the skills, know­ledge and inform­a­tion needed to engage schools and com­munit­ies in redu­cing food waste.

You will observe the highly enga­ging ‘Finish Your Food with Mr Silly Sausage’ pro­ject in action and learn about the tech­niques employed to tackle wastage. The ‘Finish Your Food’ pro­ject is an excel­lent way to sup­port Eco Schools ini­ti­at­ives and reduce food waste in school. Learn how pupils become act­ive cit­izens as they raise aware­ness at home with the ‘Plate Pledge’ fam­ily chal­lenge and the whole com­munity is effect­ively engaged in food waste reduction.

About Us:

The Scottish Waste Education Support Programme (SWESP) run by Changeworks has been deliv­er­ing high qual­ity waste edu­ca­tion train­ing courses to the major­ity of Scotland’s loc­al author­it­ies and com­munity organ­isa­tions for the last 5 years.  You too could bene­fit from our unique approach to waste edu­ca­tion through a range of activ­it­ies, tech­niques and top tips based on tried and tested waste edu­ca­tion from exper­i­enced waste educators.

Course:

09:00: Presentation on how to reduce food waste in schools and at home

11:30: School visit

12:00: Visit din­ing hall to see lunch in progress

13:30: Whole school present­a­tion ‘Finish Your Food with Mr Silly Sausage’

13:50: Talk with eco pupils about record­ing food waste as Zero Waste Heroes

14:00: Depart school

14:30: Arrive Changeworks for cof­fee and debrief

For more inform­a­tion see: http://www.changeworks.org.uk/shared/swesp/584/

Previous par­ti­cipants said:

“A good vari­ety of inform­a­tion, prac­tical activ­it­ies and oppor­tun­it­ies to share with oth­ers. Well worth the time and money.

Date: 21st March 2011

Venue: Changeworks, 36 Newhaven Road, Edinburgh, EH6 5PY

(10 mins from city centre)

Cost: Special rate of £95 + VAT

Included: Lunch, refresh­ments, all train­ing materials

To book your place contact:

Jane Adams, Waste Prevention Administrator,

A: Changeworks, 36 Newhaven Road, Edinburgh, EH6 5PY.

T: 0131 555 4010 E: jadams@changeworks.org.uk

Free orchard management course

Fruitful Skills for a Fruitful Scotland

Interested in setting up or running a community or school orchard?
Want to know more about caring for trees in an established orchard?

Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust is offer­ing a free com­munity orch­ards man­age­ment course on Saturday 26th March, 10am — 4pm

Aimed at people already run­ning or think­ing about set­ting up a com­munity orch­ard, for more details see ELGT’s web­site