ACCESS host a series of ten day long undergraduate training workshops held two times every year, all around Southern Africa. These workshops, called Habitable Planet (HPW), use an innovative curriculum that aims to introduce final year undergraduate and honours students to the concept of Earth Systems Science from a unique Southern African perspective.  The workshop also employs a unique mix of lectures, field trips, workshop sessions and interactive games to bring the science alive. You can find out what our alumni have to say about the programme in the short video (right / below) or click here to read feedback letters from past students.  Our undergraduate workshops are held every year in the June/July holidays.

The ACCESS Habitable Planet Online course takes the learning from the HPW undergraduate workshops and makes it available online for anyone interested to participate in. The online course is a 10-week programme that runs from September - November each year. The top students from the online course join us for a science workshop in December. 

The Far Apart - Science Together (FAST) programme is the newest addition to the Habitable Planet Family. Launched in the winter of 2020 is response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FAST programme is a remote learning experience unlike any other. Students from all over South Africa (and all over the world) come together on Zoom to engage with the HPW curriculum in a way that best replicates the experience of a physical workshop (without leaving your home). FAST participants are engaged in a range of science exercises (including lectures and creative arts), gain transferable skills and even network at a formal Gala dinner event. Find out more:

• FAST Tracks -  the guidebook to the 2020 programme

• FAST Participant Testimonials - what did the participants say?

One thing that make all our programme's unique is that they are all run predominantly by students themselves. Each year in March we offer training for Alumni from the programme to become student leaders at Habitable Planet. We offer three streams (i) Student Lecturer and (ii) Mini-Habitable Planet schools engagement leader and (iii) Local organising committee training (LOC) training.