How could a global Academy curriculum ever be relevant to our smallholders?
There are obvious limitations to how relevant one curriculum can be to every smallholder or group organiser/manager across the globe. The Academy has taken several steps to design the curriculum, the Master Training, and the Academy Partnership such that the curriculum becomes and stays relevant.
Comprehensive Guides
The Academy Guides cover a wide range of topics across social, economic, and environmental sustainability, good agricultural practice, group formation and strengthening, legal and financial accountability, and programme design. Partners and (Master) Trainers have a wide range of topics to select from.
Modular Training Guides
The Smallholder and Group Training Guides are modular. This means that separate training session plans have been developed, and that even within each training session plan there are a range of activities to choose from. This way, the training modules can be adjusted to the needs of your smallholders and/or group organisers/managers.
Adaptation, Contextualisation and Sharing
Partners and Master Trainers are invited to adapt the training materials to their needs and to go through a process of 'contextualisation'. All training materials are provided in an editable format and examples, exercises, and activities can be adapted to Partners' needs. All Partners are invited to share their own adaptations with other Partners through the Academy Partner Platform.
Building Capacity of Master Trainers through Master Training
During the Master Training, the new Master Trainers are introduced to the entire training guides, the effective use of the training modules, and they are trained in the steps and elements of adaptation and contextualisation of the Academy curriculum. From an understanding that the reality on the ground will always put slightly different demands on trainers, the Academy invests in the capacity of (Master) Trainers to use effective training methodology to ensure that training is more effective.