After having educated myself through literature through practicing permaculture for decades, I took a PDC year course for certification purposes and to meet other practitioners in my area. What ultimately was most valuable about taking the course was observing and experiencing how other people interpret and learn (to practice) permaculture design principles. This is something that would be difficult to attain by auto-didacting and self-developing design skills through reading and practice. In my course there were people that had never even grown a sprout in their kitchen and others who had run permaculture projects in many different countries. This was the most edifying.
