GET CERTIFIED BY THE UNSCHOOL
GET ACTIVATED, MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT, AND ADVANCE
YOUR LEADERSHIP WITH OUR CERTIFICATION TRACKS
The UnSchool is all about positively disrupting the world in ways that make it work better for everyone, and one thing that desperately needs to be challenged is the way we engage, distribute, and share knowledge.
We have developed a certification system based on three learning tracks designed to support you advancing or stepping into your leadership role as a creative change maker.
Three Tracks to Choose from
complete the Practitioner Certification training, get an UnMasters in Creative Changemaking, or become an UnSchool Certified Educator
PRACTITIONER TRACK
Certification as a Practitioner in the Disruptive Design Method validates your highly capable systems thinking and positive change-making abilities.
By the end of this certification track, you will be able to demonstrate the ability to think in systems and to apply sustainability and creativity to solving complex problems through project activation.
Demonstrate strong capacity and knowledge in the tools and techniques of disruptive changemaking and apply it to your own work.
Duration:
6 months
UNMASTERS TRACK
Certification as an UnMasters demonstrates your leadership in the application of systems interventions and the Disruptive Design Method.
By the end of this certification track, you will have the ability to facilitate positive and impactful change and demonstrate your work within organizations with high-level changemaking outcomes.
Demonstrate deep knowledge and capacity to think in complex systems and apply sustainability and creativity to any problem.
Duration:
10 months + 2 months of 1 on 1 mentorship
EDUCATOR TRACK
Certification as an Educator validates your facilitation of experiential education, the DDM, systems thinking and activating transformative change.
Certification at this level allows you to run programs and potentially teach on behalf of the UnSchool.
Demonstrate a high level of capacity in our facilitation style, critical pedagogical approaches, cognitive experience design, and deep knowledge on the core areas of systems, sustainability, and design.
Duration:
12 months + 3 months of 1 on 1 mentorship
OUR LEARNING ECOSYSTEM FOR CREATIVE CHANGE MAKERS
this model puts your needs at the forefront, integrating a level of autonomy over your own education and upskilling
The world needs more activated and agentized individuals willing to disrupt their own personal status quo to support positive creative change in their communities.
We know it can be hard to get started in your changemaking career, so we have designed three tracks to support your transition from knowing there are problems in the world to being an activate participant in solving and evolving them.
Our certification program aims to foster and support a community of expert practitioners interested in advocating, educating, and enabling proactive sustainability and socially-motivated change through the Disruptive Design Method.
The certification programs are designed to maintain a high level of integrity within the community while offering a ‘leveling-up’ process to dedicated educators and community advocates.
People who have successfully completed our certification tracks demonstrate a high level of tacit capabilities in applying and transferring the method as Practitioners, UnMasters, or Educators.
This process will enable you to challenge for certification and be validated as a Practitioner of the Disruptive Design Method, an UnMasters in facilitating change, or as a certified UnSchool Educator.
We provide a unique approach to knowledge transfer and demonstrate what we expect others to be able to embody once they have completed the tracking program.
Our certification tracks are online learning experiences curated to support your development of the thinking and doing tools needed to make a positive impact.
This learning system maintains a high level of pedagogical content while helping to rapidly advance leadership for systems change and regenerative design.
It draws from the best bits of traditional and non-traditional education and seeks to motivate you through your own learning journey. It offers you the mentorship, knowledge transfer, and practical skill development that is crucial for anyone to become a master of their domain. We want to support your learning on how to make change, and getting out there to activate change, too!
That’s why we designed the community activation points and have designed monthly classes to support your personal and professional development. This model is designed for all types of people and is intentionally gamified to help keep you motivated on your quest. Become a creative changemaker who is positively disrupting the status quo for a more sustainable and regenerative future.
The UnSchool’s purpose is to support people like you in making positive change by challenging yourself and producing valuable contributions to the world that haVE positive impact, all while mastering your skills in systems, sustainability, and design
HOW IT WORKS
start at any time, develop your own style and approach to activating change, completE learning challenges and design experiences IN your community
TRACK THROUGH THE ONLINE CURRICULUM MODULES
COMPLETE THE CHALLENGES + PROCESS JOURNAL
COLLECT COMMUNITY ACTIVATION POINTS + FINAL CHALLENGE
LEARNING GOALS
All of our tracks are designed to support you in learning the theories of systems, sustainability, and design to create the practice of activated sustainability leadership.
Each module in the learning track is connected to the overarching learning goals and supports your development of reflexive, critical, and dynamic thinking.
We have curated each certification track to support different levels of professional development.
PRACTICE BASED
Throughout the certification tracks, there are a series of challenges to put your knowledge into action, and leverage real world experiential learning.
You will create a process journal to document your work, which can be a slide deck, blog, or however you can best reflect and demonstrate your process. Filled with your actions, explorations, challenges, and interventions, the process journal allows you a dedicated space to reflect and develop your creative practice.
DEMONSTRATION
Community activation points are intended for you to increase your sphere of influence, expand knowledge transfer and real world skill development.
Once you have worked through all the modules, challenges and points, you will be ready to challenge certification with an UnSchool meeting to demonstrate your skills.
In the UnMasters and Educator track, you will prepare for this final challenge with an UnSchool mentorship to support your work.
CERTIFICATION CHECKLIST
PRACTITIONER
6 months of online courses
10 learning challenges
Final challenge
Complete process journal
100 community activation points
UNMASTERS
10 months of online courses
2 month mentorship
15 learning challenges
Final challenge
Process journal
150 community activation points
EDUCATOR
12 months of online courses
3 month mentorship
25 learning challenges
Final challenge
Process journal
200 community activation points
BONUS BENEFITS
All three tracks include the full 12 module set of the Disruptive Design Method Masterclass,
with additional unique content and activities.
The Educator track also offers the potential for certain candidates to be hired
by the UnSchool to lead DDM and other workshops as official UnSchool Educators.
All our certifications are managed via Accredible. We chose this platform for their block-chain and
bank level security, shareability on LinkedIn to demonstrate your professional upskilling, and ability to embed
into your email signature to further show your accreditation and link it back to the UnSchool.
MENTORSHIP & APPRENTICESHIP
We provide the scaffolding for success by supporting your practice development through A mentorship PROGRAM
UNMASTERS + EDUCATOR TRACKS
MENTORSHIPS
The UnMasters and Educator tracks include a peer mentorship program, with weekly check-ins and support toward developing your final challenge project.
Your mentor is assigned by the UnSchool once you are close to the final certification challenge. We have incredible people that we draw on for their unique knowledge of the DDM. They will support activating change to help you get your initiatives out into the world and to complete the final challenge in progressive and powerful ways.
APPRENTICESHIPS
As part of our commitment to advancing leadership in a rigorous and robust way, we require those tracking towards Educator to complete an apprenticeship. This experience is meant to provide co-hosting opportunities to learn, apply, and demonstrate mastery of the UnSchool facilitation and pedagogical approaches.
The apprenticeship can be in the form of co-hosting an UnSchool program (when opportunities are available), or you can design an apprenticeship project with an external partner (with prior review).
ADDITIONAL MENTORSHIP HOURS
Access additional mentorship hours with our team to get support and feedback. This is designed to help you evolve your practice, advance your thinking and doing skills, and offer support in testing your ideas out in the world.
These hours can be purchased in a pack at any time. You can sign up for one-hour sessions to get feedback, ask questions, talk through challenges, or just connect with an UnSchool Mentor to get support in your personal or professional development.
COMMUNITY ACTIVATION POINTS
COLLECT community activation pointS TO navigate
at your own pace DURING your CERTIFICATION tracK
Everything at the UnSchool - our online classes, face-to-face workshops, and mentorship programs - have points associated. Points are allocated for your personal and creative interventions and for participating in the UnSchool, and global community. Choose what types of engagements you want to work on as you advance towards your chosen level of certification.
For each of the tracks, there are a required number of points to collect and modules to complete to make sure you have the foundations laid down firmly - you pick the pace and pathway to get there!
You may want to take classes outside of the UnSchool and go on a self-directed knowledge adventure. This is all about you getting to your next level of professional and personal success. We are here to help, but it’s you who will level yourself up into your next role.
Once you have collected all the points you need and documented them in your process journal, there will be a final challenge to demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed for your certification level. It's important to us that we have robust and clear outcomes, so we will work with you to help take on the world.
GAIN REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE
BY TAKING ACTION IN YOUR COMMUNITY TO ACTIVATE POSITIVE CHANGE
Choose from any of the activities, and include them in your process journal
If you have done a community focused activation that does not fit within this point system, you can request a review for points. Just make sure you document it in your process journal!
Host a sustainability themed dinner party
Publish an article on the topics discussed
Complete a self-initiated project
Help organize an UnSchool event
Attend a 3 day UnSchool program
Co-host an UnSchool workshop
Design + do a project that helps make change
Complete a full peer mentorship process (1 month)
Run a full day self-initiated and designed workshop
Create a community activation that supports change
Complete a 5 day UnSchool workshop
Volunteer for a fellowship/program as team
Design or create collateral/content that is disseminated publicly and helps activate change
Complete an UnSchool apprenticeship
Attend a 7-day UnSchool Fellowship program
Co-host/produce an UnSchool fellowship
Complete a self initiated apprenticeship
MORE QUESTIONS?
Book a call with us for more details to find the right path for you.
FAQS
How does this system work?
This is a blended system of online and real world activities for you to track toward a personal outcome of being a certified Practitioner, UnMasters, or UnSchool Educator.
This system works on several levels: that of Participation (in our programs, workshops, and on your own), Action (creating positive change and impact in the world on measurable levels), and Reflection (looking to always improve and adapt as responsive agents of change in the world). We have included modules that touch on all of these levels, including online and offline learning, mentorship opportunities for each of us to learn from each other at various levels of skill, and opportunities for leadership.
Who provides the certification validation?
We do, it's from us. We examined a lot of certification systems and decided not to participate in any of the existing structures. We live in an era where it is possible to engage in learning in non-traditional ways, in project-based, hands-on, self-directed ways. We are interested in activating real world impact and disrupting the current models that leave gaps in possibility and opportunity.
We are experimenting with the structure of model we have developed, which relies on our community co-creating it with us. Collaboration is a critical part of our method, and it disengages from traditional top-down education. Instead, we are inviting the community to be a participant in the way it is shaped, adapting to needs as they present themselves. This certification is not just a way to validate our community to take our methods further, but also a project that we are conducting to transform the status quo of education. Your feedback is invaluable for this process, and we would love to hear your thoughts as we work towards a positive future for us all.
We know that there are times you need a proof of participation for your existing structures. As such, at the end of your track, you will be issued a certificate of completion via our block-chain verification accrediting partner Accredible.com. Please check with your administration to make sure it will be accepted by them if this is something that is required by them.
Do I have to register for a track?
Sign up is required at our online school here. Once you are signed up, you will get access to everything that you need to get started right away. When you have completed everything and are ready, you will apply to challenge the track that you want to obtain certification in. We provide a document of certification if requested, and for Educators, you may also be asked to take commissions for the UnSchool.
How do I keep track of all my points and progress?
We have designed online certification tracks filled with content delivered in monthly modules to support your application and knowledge retention. Everything you need is outlined in the track once you sign up, and you will keep track of your work through your own process journal, to be shared with us at the end of the track for review.
Each tracker has creates their process journal in the way that best suits them. What we look for is your work and activity progress, reflections, adaptations to challenges, and learning outcomes. As long as this is clear, consistent and comprehensible for us to see your journey at the end of the track, you are welcome to use whatever method suits you the best. We love seeing creativity in the journals!
Will Leyla be teaching the programs?
Most of the video content inside the tracks features Leyla. She may provide some bonus live sessions throughout the year and is involved in certification validation, but it is unlikely that she will be your mentor! However, you can learn directly from Leyla if you sign up for an apprenticeship or face-to-face program. When Leyla is the lead facilitator on a program, we will advertise that. Otherwise, we have an incredible group of facilitators and mentors supporting the uptake of the Disruptive Design Method and activating change tools. If you complete the Educator track, you become eligible to become part of this team at the discretion of the UnSchool. Our goal is to have certified Educators all around the world in order to create broader change that is contextual to each community, industry and set of pre-existing skills.
HOW MUCH TIME DO I HAVE TO COMPLETE MY TRACK?
Each track has a different duration. Practitioner is 6 months of classes. UnMasters is 10 months of classes + 2 months of mentorship. Educator is 12 months of classes + 3 months of mentorship. All tracks have additional time to submit your final challenge and to apply for certification. We also know life happens, so you can take a pause and ladder up tracks as well.
HOW DO I KEEP TRACK OF THE POINTS?
You gain points by doing stuff in the world, like running workshops or attending our face-to-face programs. You will keep track of your own points and include demonstrations of these activities in your process journal, which will be part of your final challenge. The goal of the points is to practice your new knowledge, and to create change within the world by actively engaging with your community while expanding your sphere of influence.
If I have taken classes already, do I get points?
Yes! Every UnSchool workshop or online class has points allocated to it. Check the points section above to see how many you already qualify for and add them to your process journal. You can also apply for points based on non-UnSchool activities.
Co-hostING opportunities
You can co-host at any program we offer — you just need to apply! Keep checking on our social channels for opportunities to co-host.
