One of the new aspects we’re building into our Journeyman Certification Course are skill and craft benchmarks. It’s great to learn how to make new things. But, to attain even a basic skill level with them, they have to be completed a number of times.

For example, on some of our courses students learn how to carve a netting needle and gauge. Their first attempts are usually a little rough, but they learn the process which is the important part. We tell them that they’ve taken the first step toward understanding the netting needle and gauge, but to really know it they need to make ten more.

For the Journeyman course, students will take the knowledge they learned on the course home and complete specific tasks a specified number of times. When they’re done, they’ll really know what they’re doing and will have eliminated much of the learning curve.

Proof of completing the benchmarks a specific number of times is necessary to complete the program. This allows us to move quickly during the immersion phase of the program, but to also ensure that tasks are repeated enough times so that the learning is on a deep, non-superficial level.