Re-skilling:  “Relearning the skills that our grandparents took for granted, such as how to use hand tools, how to build our own structures, how to mend and make clothing how to make our own medicine, how to forage, preserve and store our food.”

Rob Hopkins has founded and popularized the Transition Town movement. One of his ideas is The Great Reskilling. The basic idea is simple – the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change mean that society will change fundamentally, and this will in turn force each one of us to acquire new knowledge and skills. These “new” skills are often old skills; knowledge of how to do things in a world of drastically reduced access to energy, and incidentally leading to a much lower environmental impact. They include old craft skills, resource management and farming — knowledge that was alive and widely distributed in society only two generations ago.

Transition Nelson is committed to gathering and compiling a list of people who offer courses or trainings which can be classified as “reskilling”, skills which build resilience. If you or someone you know fits this description please forward their contact information to [email protected] .

It is our intention to convene a reskilling event in 2013 which will showcase Kootenay reskillers  and provide an open learning  forum with a goal of developing a best means of connecting Kootenay reskillers with people who want to learn new skills.