Gender Scholar Level 1 certification (2022)
The Geneva Learning Foundation (TGLF) invite applications for the next cohort of the Gender Scholar programme Level 1 certification.
Enrollment for the next English-language cohort will soon be open.
Who should enroll?
- This course is for anyone who wants to integrate intersectional gender analysis and apply it to their daily work, project, programme, or governance.
- Alumni of the Foundation’s Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) and other courses are especially encouraged to enroll.
It is expected that you have some prior knowledge of gender or other intersectional issues. If you do not, you may need to do additional work to gain this knowledge before or during the course.
An evidence-based package of interventions to support your learning
This course will use the Scholar package, a set of interventions developed by the Geneva Learning Foundation to support effective learning for global health and humanitarian work.
- This package draws on evidence-based action and applied learning, leadership acceleration, mentoring, and collaborative methodologies.
- It has been used successfully by the Geneva Learning Foundation and its partners in over 50 courses and programmes.
How will we learn in this course?
Participants in this course will be ‘peers’ because they work in the same field and are interested in the course topic.
- Most people recognize that adult learners can learn from each other through ‘peer learning’.
- Effective practice of peer learning, however, requires un-learning much of what has been ingrained over years of schooling.
- We have an ingrained assumption that significant learning requires expert feedback.
In this course:
- You will discover how much you can learn from your peers by giving and receiving feedback in many different ways.
- You will learn to trust and support colleagues in the course – and discover that this can greatly strengthen your own learning.
- You will likely need to challenge your assumptions about how you learn in order to succeed in this course.
You may be skeptical about how much you can learn from other participants – given that you do not know their expertise or experience.
- Learning, however, is about problem-solving and critical thinking – not just knowledge.
- We ask that you trust the process – and expect to initially find yourself outside your comfort zone until you have experienced a moment of significant learning.
How will I know how I am doing – and where I need to improve?
The course offers you many ways to receive guidance, support, and feedback from its faculty, who will provide guidance when and if it is needed.
- We are used to receiving feedback when sitting knee-to-knee with colleagues in a room or face-to-face in a video or phone call.
- In this course, you will discover that there are many other ways to receive feedback.
- The ways that are least familiar to you may in fact be the most effective, once you get used to them.
Here are some examples:
- Rather than asking the faculty to review individual assignments, we will entrust course participants to evaluate each other’s work using structured peer review.
- When the course community is connected at the same time online, we will listen to short presentations by participants. Everyone will be able to give constructive feedback.
- Faculty will share guidance, support, and feedback that you can access at any time – and you are expected to think about what these mean for your own work.
- You will also be able to ask questions at any time – and receive answers from both faculty and peers.
What participants said about peer learning and the course
“The more we work with peers and get validation, [the more] confidence grows.”
“This is a great experience. Every time I comment to a peer, I actually feel that I am telling the same thing to myself.”
“It was not just a process of review. That was a process of learning.”
"This course has brought lots of participants from around the world, and they have really good ideas. That peer conversation is really rich. We get lots of learning from that, not only from the course trainers."
"This is my first time doing this kind of training and it's very impressive. I've extended my networking to other colleagues in different countries. It is a very good learning platform for new practitioners and those who are already working in this field. It is very practical. It motivates you through the peer review comments and feedback."
"I'm a protection technical expert. When I applied, I wasn't sure if I was going to get accepted and be part of the course group. Now, I feel it was a perfect fit. I shouldn’t have worried, because the focus of my programming suits the course approach. It is paramount to understand gender dynamics - across all our protection programming."
Enrollment fee
Payment must be received at least 14 days before the start date of the course. If and only if you cannot pay by credit card or PayPal, you can pay through an invoice request, but this requires significantly more time and effort. The last date to pay through an invoice request is three weeks before the course start date.
Enrollment in the course cannot be deferred to a later date. If you cancel your place in the course at any time you will not be entitled to a refund, except in exceptional circumstances, at the discretion of the Foundation. If a refund is made, an administration fee may be charged.
Additional options in this course include personalized feedback about your course work, coaching during and after the course, and career advisory services. The details and costs of these options will be presented after enrollment.
Certification
Upon successful completion of the course and following validation of your final project and assignments by the course team and subject matter experts, you will receive a certificate of participation.
- Each certificate is valid for a duration of three years.
- Certificate holders agree to show upon request a portfolio of their work that includes the project(s) produced in Scholar.
- To earn a certificate of successful completion for this course, participants are required to complete both parts of this course within the announced course schedule.
Technical requirements
Applicants are responsible for ensuring that they are able to meet the following requirements.
- Information technology: You will need to access the course web site on a regular basis (preferably every day). Participants need to have access to a reliable Internet connection and a standards-based browser less than two years old (Firefox, Safari, or Chrome). Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge users will be asked to use a standards-based browser for the course. Mobile‑only users may use Mobile Chrome in desktop mode when working on their course projects, although a desktop browser is recommended.
- Languages: The language of the course will be English. You will need “upper-intermediate” level of reading skills in English.
Research
You may be asked to volunteer to take part in research to evaluate the impact of this course. If you do not agree, the research and evaluation team will collect no data. If you agree, you can stop at any time. Taking or not taking part will have no effect on your present or future relationship with any of the organisations involved in the course.
About The Geneva Learning Foundation
The Geneva Learning Foundation is a Swiss non-profit with the mission to develop trial, and scale up new ways to lead change to tackle the challenges that threaten our societies.
We organize Special Events on key areas of concern for humanitarian, development, and global health work.
Each Event is fully digital, with no travel required and no upper limit to the number of participants.
Events are free for individuals. There is no cost for either registration or participation.
