Continuing Education

AOLCPs must earn 4 Continuing Education Units every year. This is generally 4 hours of training.

Please save a record of events and attendance that you expect to satisfy for your AOLCP continuing education requirement (Name of Course/Event; speaker/organizer; date; some form of receipt).

At this time, you do NOT need to submit proof of continuing education to us. If your name is called up in our annual April audit, we will ask you to submit your record of continuing education.

Recognizing that AOLCPs work in and come from different fields, education, and training backgrounds, we interpret continuing education broadly. In general, workshops and classes you attend for ceu’s should be addressed to professionals in land care, focus on organic/organic-relevant topics, and deepen or expand your knowledge of the practice of organic land care.

All OLC-sponsored and run courses and most CT NOFA sponsored courses will count toward your continuing education requirement, including courses and lectures in the OLC Archive. 

Partner organizations that offer pre-approved CEUs for their courses and events can be found further down on this page. Please visit their websites for more information about what courses and events they are currently offering. Pre-approved courses and events will generally show CEUs awarded for NOFA, NOFA OLC, or AOLCP.

Many other events and courses that are not pre-approved for CEUs are still suitable for AOLCP CEUs. Look to your local, state and national nursery and landscape professional associations; botanical gardens; community colleges and other institutions of higher learning; master gardener programs; etc. Online or in-person courses are considered of equal value.

Yes! Many activities other than taking classes can count toward your continuing education requirement, including the following:

• Paid or volunteer teaching of courses or workshops on relevant organic land care topics for professionals or non-professionals
• Volunteer outreach on organic land care (for example, tabling at an Earth Day event or speaking to a community board about organic turf or the dangers of pesticides to children and animals)
• Leading a pro-bono or volunteer community project, such as planting a native plant garden, building a rain garden, or converting a lawn
• Serving on an OLC committee
• Serving on a non-profit or public board or committee, in your capacity as an organic land care provider and AOLCP
• Other activities not covered here may be counted toward CEUs. If you have questions, ask us!

We don’t generally award CEUs for courses on or about pesticides or chemical interventions, courses or workshops with topics that are in direct contradiction to the Standards, seminars geared toward a general public rather than landscape professionals, attendance at trade shows if you haven’t presented or attended educational sessions, tabling for or marketing your business, or your paid work.