WHAT IS RESKILLING?
One way to become more self-sufficient and resilient is to learn how to do things for yourself, your family and community. Rob Hopkins, author of “The Transition Handbook,” coined the term “reskilling” to describe the process of learning how to do things for ourselves again.
Hopkins describes reskilling as:
“Re-learning 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, grow, preserve and store our food.”
Reskilling has many benefits — because once you have more control over your own activities, you may be able to save money, cut energy use, minimize or eliminate harmful chemical use, create less waste, learn how to rethink, repurpose, reuse and recycle.
Because living with less energy is constantly evolving, it also gives you the opportunity to innovate — to fuse heritage skills with the modern, using the latest in low or zero-impact engineering and technology.
SOME OF THE USEFUL SKILLS PEOPLE ARE REDISCOVERING
Gardening and permaculture
Planting fruit and nut orchards
Sewing, knitting, crocheting, weaving and other types of fiber work
Cooking locally & seasonally
Weatherizing your home
Repurposing and reusing
Transition OKC periodically collaborates with other organizations focused on the same mission, or organizes and sponsors reskilling events and workshops.
RESKILLING WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS
Check out our reskilling resources page for books on gardening, emergency preparedness, solar cooking and more.