Greeniversity

Greeniversity is a skill share initiative that gives people the opportunity to teach or learn ‘green skills’ from bike maintenance to beekeeping, to use in their local community. The initiative will be working with the Transition Town Network.

Website: www.greeniversity.org.uk

The Greeniversity skills exchange was set up two years ago by Peterborough Environment City Trust (PECT), to enable people with green skills to share them with people who wanted to learn. Since then, 120 local people have led over 500 classes with courses ranging from learning how to make a curry from local vegetables to harvesting rainwater from your roof.

The Greeniversity website provides a central platform for skills sharing. Learners are able to search for courses, suggest courses they would like to see and register to take part; teachers are able to register and manage the administration for their courses and other organisations are able to add relevant events and activities.

A new partnership is being developed between Greeniversity and the transition network. This would combine a free skills sharing platform with a national network and will build on the momentum already being created in local communities by members of the transition network. The aim is to significantly increase the number of skill sharing courses on offer within these areas.

The Award: PECT has been awarded £135,117 to launch Greeniversity nationally.  Initially it will work with five groups within the transition network to develop a national web platform and support resources to enable national roll out.  Initial partners to pilot the project for national rollout are; Transition Cambridge, Transition Rutland, Transition Leicester and Transition Lincoln.

Contact

Rachel Huxley, Peterborough Environment City Trust: 01733 567409 rachel.huxley@pect.net

Case studies

Barbara

Barbara has recently retired, is very active and likes to feel she is part of a community and that she is contributing to society.

Barbara's only experience of adult learning has been work based training in a formal capacity. She was put off learning at school where she was made to feel unintelligent. She is terrified of the word 'exam' and would not willingly want to be involved in any type of formal learning.

Barbara became involved with Greeniversity when she heard about the project from a PECT member of staff.  As she is retired, Barbara was really keen to get involved in something social that involved a low level of commitment. 

As a Greeniversity learner she has attended a class at the central Library called 'The Scent of the Tudors: eco products from history', she also attended the 'Nordic walking taster session'. Barbara was impressed with the Greeniversity model and started to think about what she could offer. She signed up to the Train the Trainer course which she successfully completed. The hardest part of the course for her was the section where she gave a mini presentation; this was a really big achievement for her as she was particularly nervous of standing up in front of people and talking. She has become a Greeniversity teacher and is sharing her green skill of knitting.

Barbara has found that her confidence has increased significantly since joining Greeniversity and feels that her self esteem has been boosted considerably.

"I never considered myself to be very clever and I wasn't very confident but now when I show the young girls how to knit it makes me feel that I'm a worthwhile person, I have something enjoyable to think about and use up some the spare time I have now I've retired"

John

John is an ex-offender who became one of the first Greeniversity teachers. John spent his early adulthood in the armed forces but fell on hard times when he became a civilian. He is homeless, unemployed and is currently living in a friend's caravan. He has no prior experience of adult learning other than his army training. He became involved with the Greeniversity after the project officer visited the Green Backyard, Peterborough's community urban growing space, to promote the project. John became involved with the Green Backyard when he was doing community service and has since become heavily involved in the project working as a volunteer.

John attended the Greeniversity 'bee keeping' course and is now planning to keep bees at the Green Backyard, but has also helped John in many other ways. Through the project's web workshops, he set up an email address and registered online with Greeniversity. He then taught a very successful course on 'wild foods' where he taught 14 people how to skin and cook rabbit and pluck, prepare and cook a pheasant. He then signed up for the Greeniversity Train the Trainer course which he successfully completed and he is planning his next 'wild food' course where he will teach people how to fillet and cook fish.

John now regularly uses the internet at his local library, of which he was not previously a member. He has featured in the Peterborough Evening Telegraph and he has recently been awarded an Adult Learners Award.

"I feel so much more confident now; I use the internet all the time, I've met loads of new people and I loved being in the paper, it made me feel like I'd really done something good. I can't believe I've won an award, it's brilliant."

Jill

Jill is in her late forties and had until recently worked as a PA in an advertising firm. She became ill and as a result has limited mobility and is now retired on medical grounds.

Jill became involved with the project when she met the project officer at a Pumpkin Day event held at Sacrewell Farm. The project was in its very early stages and Jill was intrigued about what the project could offer her. She became involved because she felt socially isolated due to her disability. She did not want to sign up for formal classes as she does not know how well she will be from day to day. She felt that Greeniversity was ideal for her as there is no formal commitment, she can sign up for a class and if she is unwell she does not have to attend.

To date Jill has signed up for seven classes and so far has managed to attend three and she has three more to look forward to including 'foraging for wild food', 'buying and selling on Ebay' and 'saving energy, reducing bills.' Jill was unable to attend one class due to ill health, this was a class about looking after the illness Fibromyalgia in a natural way. She was very disappointed about this as it is the illness she suffers from, however, when Jill let the teacher know that she was too ill to attend she arranged to have a one-to-one session with her when she was feeling better.

Jill has learnt about the Geology in Peterborough, about cooking wild foods and decoupage from recycled materials. However, Jill feels that the most important outcome from her involvement with the Greeniversity is that she no longer feels that she is a social outcast. She has made new friends and is enjoying new skills; all without any pressure.

"Greeniversity has a very nice atmosphere. I enjoyed all of the contacts I had with everyone to do with Greeniversity. It is such a positive and forward thinking atmosphere. The ambience is wonderful".