Our People, Our Impact: How The Carpentries Community Multiplies Skills Worldwide
Our People, Our Impact
The impact of The Carpentries has always been rooted in people.
Across universities, research institutes, libraries, and organisations around the world, community members are working together to build capacity for teaching foundational data and computational skills. At the center of this work are the people who teach, maintain, and build community around the programs that make our workshops possible. They then go on to introduce The Carpentries to other individuals at their institutions and empower them with the same skills. This is where the multiplier effect begins - one of the main benefits of an institutional Partnership with the Carpentries.
This month, we are highlighting two groups whose contributions power the global reach of The Carpentries: Instructor Trainers and Lesson Maintainers and Developers. Together, these community members create a multiplier effect that allows skills, knowledge, and teaching expertise to spread across institutions and communities worldwide.
If your organisation is interested in benefiting from the impact of The Carpentries community, and becoming part of the cycle of building sustainable training capacity, we invite you to learn more about our new Partnership Programme.
Learn More About the New Carpentries Partnership Program
We recently launched our new Partnership Program, designed to provide organisations with greater flexibility and more ways to engage with The Carpentries community. If you coordinate your organisation’s partnership with The Carpentries, or are interested in doing so in the future, we invite you to join one of our upcoming information sessions.
Upcoming Information Sessions
Session 1
- Tuesday, 21 April, 2026 at 16:30 UTC
- Check your local time and register here.
Session 2
- Wednesday, 22 April, 2026 at 09:00 UTC
- Check your local time and register here.
These sessions are geared toward individuals who coordinate their organisation’s Partnership with The Carpentries, or who aspire to do so in the future.
During these sessions, we will:
- take a guided tour of the new Partnership Program,
- explain how it differs from our former Membership Program,
- explore the available programming and customisation options, and
- discuss how to align a partnership with your organisation’s training and capacity-building goals.
If you have heard about the new Partnership Program and would like to explore the new programming, customisation options, and service discount structure in more depth, this session is for you. Bring your questions. We are excited for this conversation!
Instructor Trainers: Building the Next Generation of Carpentries Instructors
Instructor Trainers teach The Carpentries Instructor Training program, preparing new Instructors to teach using evidence-based and inclusive teaching practices.
These community leaders help participants learn how to:
- engage learners actively
- create welcoming learning environments, and
- teach technical concepts clearly.
Each training event prepares a new cohort of Instructors who can go on to teach workshops at their own institutions or across the global community. This is how the multiplier effect is sustained.
A diagram of our Instructor Training program. Instructor Trainers are trained through Instructor Trainer Training and themselves teach Instructor Training to new Instructors. New Instructors teach Carpentries Workshops to learners.
One Instructor Trainer helps prepare dozens of Instructors each year. Each of those Instructors can then go on to teach workshops that reach hundreds of learners. Over time, those learners may themselves become Instructors, continuing the cycle of skill-building. Through this model, organisations are not simply hosting workshops. They are building local capacity for training that can sustain itself over time.
Why Our Lesson Materials Work
Another key part of The Carpentries impact is the way our lesson materials are created and maintained. Unlike traditional training programs that rely on static curricula, Carpentries lessons are developed openly by a global community. Our lessons are:
- open source
- collaboratively developed, and
- continuously improved through community feedback.
Lesson Maintainers coordinate updates and improvements, while contributors from around the world help refine examples, improve clarity, and update content as technologies evolve. This collaborative model ensures that our lessons remain practical, relevant, and aligned with the real needs of researchers, librarians, and professionals working with data.
To support this work, The Carpentries offers Collaborative Lesson Development Training, which teaches community members how to design and develop lessons using open-source workflows and collaborative practices. This combination of open collaboration and structured training allows our curriculum to evolve alongside the communities who use it.
From Workshops to Sustainable Skill Building
When organisations partner with The Carpentries, they gain access to more than workshops. They join a global ecosystem designed to help them build sustainable teaching capacity through:
- Instructor Training events
- open lesson development
- access to a global Instructor community
- professional development opportunities, and
- collaborative community support.
The result is not just a single training event, but a pathway for organisations to grow their own community of Instructors, learners, and lesson developers. Join us on 21-22 April to learn more!