Welcome
It is a pleasure to be working with you and we are glad to have you in this ProTerra Auditor training course!
Food plays an important role in our lives, and we all want food that is healthy, delicious, accessible, affordable, and environmentally and socially responsible – in a word, sustainable. Meeting future demand for feeding our growing population, and doing so sustainably, forces us to make difficult choices both as individuals and as a society. The ProTerra certification program responds to the growing demand for products (food and feed), that are differentiated from the norm by being produced according to higher standards of ethics, social responsibility, and environmental sustainability. ProTerra not only establishes standards for corporate social and environmental responsibility in the food and feed sectors, but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement of a company’s systems, processes and practices.
ProTerra audits take place in many regions of the world, and since social, economic and environmental factors are complex and country-specific, we rely on the expertise and language skills of local auditors to capture this complexity. The recent emergence of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), is shifting the paradigm of the educational experience, making it possible to reach a greater number of qualified auditors. Because of this, we have the opportunity to interact on a scale previously impossible due to technical limitations. We’ve structured this innovative learning tool to emphasize communication among you and your classmates, and between you and us, via distance learning. An important part of the learning will take place in the forums, where you will post your thoughts and ideas and respond to those of others. If you have expertise in a specific topic, we want to hear from you.
We invite you to check our video and learn more about ProTerra Standard. Check the video by clicking here.
Course Overview
You will notice that lectures and reading materials (PDF’s) cover important topics from or related to the Standard. To study these topics, we rely on quizzes, case studies, readings and a few videos. These exercises will expose you to new ideas and promote discussion. This course is 5 days long and is organized around the ten principles of ProTerra Standard 4.1. Each day we will focus on a few of the ProTerra principles.
Although all days, and corresponding course material, will open and will remain available until the end of the course, students are required to take activities in sequence so that all participate in the same activities at around the same period and permit the coordinators to attend to these activities and respond to questions and discussions. The quizzes, forum topics, reading materials and videos are learning tools for you to work through at your own pace.
The best way to complete this course is simply to start at the top of each day’s page and work your way down. The daily activities are explained in detail at the start of every new course day.
Please begin in the Introduction forum by telling us a bit about yourself and getting acquainted with your classmates.
If you have questions about the training platform or find problems using it, please get in touch using the Technical issues forum, or send an email to info@proterrafoundation.org
