What are the Academy Training Materials that are currently available?

The Academy offers different training materials for Academy Partners. All guides are currently available in English. The first three Guides (Smallholder Training Guide, Group Training Guide, and Programme Design Guide) will all be available in five more languages (French, Indonesian, Malay, Spanish, Thai) before the end of 2019.

Smallholder Training Guide

• Focus on helping smallholders have sustainable livelihoods
• Aimed at trainers of smallholders
• Consisting of 33 session plans
• Covering topics from good agricultural practices (GAP) and socially and environmentally sustainable practices to financial literacy and RSPO Certification 
• Each training session plan is good for 2 hours of training or more and contains a range of optional activities to allow for full customisation by trainers. 
• Providing extensive instructions on how to carry out interactive and learner-focused training sessions and how to make the sessions more context-relevant.

Group Training Guide

• Focus on helping group organisers and managers form and strengthen sustainable smallholder groups
• Aimed at trainers of smallholder group organisers and managers
• Containing 7 sections, each good for approximately 1 day of group training or more
• Containing 17 additional Powerpoint slide decks and 10 handouts
• Containing a range of activities to allow for customisation by trainers
• Covering group formation and strengthening, the basics of group finance, Group Manager’s essentials for RSPO Certification, and GAP, and sustainability. 
• Providing instructions on how to carry out interactive and learner-focused training sessions for group organisers/managers.

Programme Design Guide

• Focus on helping supporting organisations set up smallholder programmes that support their sustainable livelihoods
• Aimed at programme designers/ managers, and group managers tasked with setting up their organisation’s smallholder programme.
• Offering 150+ pages of practical tools and examples for effective programme design
• Covering every step in the process of designing your own oil palm smallholder programme: Goal setting and strategic planning, field assessment, key agronomic, business, social and environmental sustainability issues, setting up your training programme, designing activities around group building, traceability, inputs and technical support, access to finance, market, scaling, and M&E.

Training-of-Trainers Manual (ToT Manual)

• A Train-the-Trainer manual based on the activities, content and methodology of the Academy Master Training
• Aimed at Academy-trained Master Trainers who want to train trainers in their own organisation or network on the use and methodology of the Academy Training Guides
• A 5-6 day training programme including a field day
• Covering ~25 session plans with highly interactive activity formats