Educational Resources

This course guides participants in building financially sustainable social enterprises that deliver real impact. You’ll learn to map your organisation’s value creation, design effective business models, test key assumptions on markets and costs, and identify revenue engines for bottom-of-the-pyramid markets.

Duration: 4 weeks

This course helps participants measure and improve their social impact using practical tools and real-world examples. You’ll learn to assess impact through a three-part framework, develop a clear theory of change, and apply Acumen’s Lean Data approach, supported by case studies from leading social enterprises.

Duration: 4 weeks

This course introduces Acumen’s Lean Data framework as a practical alternative to traditional monitoring and evaluation. Participants will learn to identify data collection opportunities, design effective surveys, leverage technology for rapid feedback, run Lean Data sprints, and present customer insights to stakeholders.

Duration: 5 weeks

This self-paced course helps tourism managers integrate local communities through inclusive business models, addressing challenges and solutions for community involvement, with a badge awarded upon completion. 

Duration: 1 hour

This self-paced course teaches tourism managers to involve local communities, identify stakeholders, integrate community linkages into daily operations, and understand the mutual benefits for locals and businesses.

Duration: 1 hour

This self-paced course for tour guides covers cultural heritage interpretation, including tangible and intangible heritage like sites, buildings, arts, and crafts, emphasising their importance and principles for effective guiding.

Duration: 1 hour

This online course introduces sustainable community engagement for accommodation providers, covering key concepts, benefits, and best practices. Includes videos, resources, and quizzes, with a certificate upon completion—perfect for enhancing sustainability in hospitality.

Duration: 1 hour

This course helps tourism professionals create authentic, community-led experiences that benefit locals and visitors. It provides practical tools and examples to integrate equity, sustainability, and lasting connections. By doing so, it fosters responsible tourism that supports and enriches local cultures and communities.

Duration: 1 hour

This course helps professionals create authentic, sustainable travel experiences that benefit locals and visitors by building tools for community-led tourism, fostering stronger community partnerships, and delivering immersive, equitable experiences that last.

Duration: 2 hours

This course examines heritage and tourism development from social sciences and management perspectives, integrating global and local views. It reviews key concepts like authenticity, commodification, and sustainable development, and evaluates topical issues such as marketing strategies and cultural interpretation.

Duration: 1 hour 11 minutes

This course teaches innovative approaches for promoting decent work and social justice in rural economies. Divided into 7 modules, it covers topics such as decent work policies, gender equality, youth empowerment, and a just transition to a sustainable rural economy.

Self-paced, 7 modules

This guide helps businesses in the tourism value chain achieve mutual benefits by aligning development impacts with core goals. It maps opportunities, challenges, solutions, and partners who can provide support, based on research, case studies, and expert feedback.

Length: 80 pages

The guidelines are intended to provide a framework for good business practices. It is important to note that the guidelines are not standards but meant to inform good, responsible and culturally sensitive business behavior. They are meant to be scaled, adapted to fit local conditions and adjusted over time.

Length: 24 pages

Supporting local community welfare is vital for hospitality businesses to thrive. This factsheet provides an overview of how to prioritize community welfare, including getting to know your community, identifying areas for engagement, integrating welfare into existing activities, and ensuring activities remain relevant and grow with the community.

Length: 2 pages

An introduction course dealing with indigenous people, the importance of supporting indigenous people, codes of conduct and intellectual property rights.

Self-paced

The Responsible Tourism Handbook provides a comprehensive guide for tourism operators to minimize their impact on the environment and benefit local communities. It offers practical advice on sustainable practices, community engagement, and conservation, promoting responsible tourism in the Magaliesberg region of South Africa.

Lenght: 52 pages

In a warming world, tourism businesses must balance people, planet, and profit. This course shows entrepreneurs how to manage impacts, innovate sustainably, and lead climate-positive change without breaking the bank.

Duration: 1 hour

This self-paced course will help you understand what Green & Clean Tourism means. You will find out which negative effects tourism can have on the environment and the host communities and which measures you can implement to enable green and clean practices in your tourism business.

Duration: 1 hour

This course explores the evolution of agriculture, the impact of technology on farming, and the factors affecting food security, including poverty and inequality. It covers key regulations, trade, and production practices, with examples from various industries and insights from smallholder farmers.

Duration: 7 weeks, 3-5 hours per week