What is a Carpentries Workshop?

The Carpentries teaches workshops around the world on the foundational skills to work effectively and reproducibly with data and code. Our certified volunteer Instructors are trained in pedagogy and focus on creating a motivating and engaging environment for learners. Our workshops are inclusive and hands-on, empowering students to learn new skills and build confidence in using them in their work.

Because our workshops are taught around the world, we have a team of Regional Coordinators to help support the coordination of workshop activities. They are available to answer any questions or concerns you may have about our workshops or The Carpentries in general.

We encourage you to check out our upcoming and past workshops to see examples of how The Carpentries workshops are run.

Read our Workshops FAQ to learn more.


Carpentries by the numbers

4,843

instructors

105,625

learners

4,225

workshops

* Learners count is estimated based on average workshop attendance of 25.


Workshop Curriculum



Data Carpentry

Library Carpentry

Software Carpentry

Data Carpentry workshops are for people who work with data in their research and want to learn how to code and organise their projects to work more effectively and reproducibly with data.

Library Carpentry workshops are for people working in library- and information-related roles to build software and data skills. The workshops are domain-agnostic though datasets used will be familiar to library staff.

Software Carpentry workshops are for people who are learning to code to develop software or learn best-practices in software development. Lessons are domain-agnostic, and teach the Unix shell, coding in R or Python, and version control using Git.

There are many options for you to choose from! To help you decide which Lesson Program is best for your audience, please read the descriptions of our curricula.

Organising a Workshop


The Carpentries offers two types of workshops: Centrally-Organised and Self-Organised.

Requesting a Centrally-Organised Workshop


Centrally-Organised workshops come with the full support of The Carpentries Workshop Administration team! These workshops are organised for a fee. The Regional Coordinator for your region will locate and coordinate instructors for the workshop. We want to ensure your workshop is successful. Therefore we ask that you request Centrally-Organised workshops at least 2-3 months before your desired workshop date. To learn more about the process for organising a workshop please review the Workshop Checklist.

Please be advised that a workshop will not be scheduled until it has been confirmed by the host and The Carpentries Workshop Administrator. Our workshops are organised based on the order the Workshop Request Form is received and finalized. 

Registration of Self-Organised Workshops


The Carpentries welcomes you to organise and run your own workshop. This means you are already connected with our certified Instructors and will work with them on all aspects of workshop organisation. When planning a Self-Organised workshop we ask that you complete the Self-Organised workshop notification form to notify us of your planned workshop so that we can add your workshop to our website, provide support (in the form of survey result links and AMI instances for Genomics workshops), and get instructors and helpers credit for the workshops they teach. To learn more about the process for organising a workshop please review the Workshop Checklist. Since you will be taking care of all the logistics, there is no administrative fee due to The Carpentries for running a Self-Organised workshop.

Remember, we want to know about any workshops you teach that use The Carpentries material! If you teach a workshop that is shorter or longer format, or mixes and matches from Lesson Programs, we are piloting tracking these workshops. You can register a Self-Organised workshop and it will be listed on The Carpentries webpage.

What are the requirements for a Carpentries workshop?


A Carpentries workshop must meet the following requirements:

What are the Core curricula for a Carpentries Workshop?


Official Carpentries workshops meet the workshop requirements listed above, including teaching a lesson program's core curriculum. The core curriculum for each lesson program is listed below:

Data Carpentry

Library Carpentry

Software Carpentry

Data Carpentry workshops should contain the following:

  • A lesson on data organisation
  • Any three other lessons from in the same domain in the Data Carpentry curriculum

Library Carpentry workshops should contain the following:

  • Any three lessons from the Library Carpentry curriculum

Software Carpentry workshops should contain Software Carpentry lessons on:

  • The Unix Shell
  • Version Control with Git
  • A programming language (R or Python)


Workshop Cost


Our instructors are volunteers and are not paid for their time teaching. Therefore we ask the host to cover travel and accommodation costs for instructors assigned to teach at your institution.
  • The total cost of hosting a workshop includes both the Workshop Administration Fee and travel expenses for the instructors (for in-person workshops only).
  • The administration fee is used to support staff time with this partnership. You will be provided with exceptional customer service and timely support from our Workshops and Instruction Team and Regional Coordinators.

The workshop fee is dependent on the purchasing organisation's geographic location, according to the World Bank's gross national income categorisation.

Workshop Administration Fee (USD)†
High income $3,000
Upper-middle income $2,250
Lower-middle income $1,500
Low income $750

†Non-profit fees shown. For-profit organisation fees are 4x listed price.

Workshop Administration Financial Support

Financial support may be available for workshops that reach new or under-served communities. If you are interested in hosting a Centrally-Organised workshop and would like to request assistance covering the fee, please complete the Workshop Request Form. If financial support is awarded, the host will still be responsible for the instructor travel expenses.

Travel Expenses for Instructors

The instructors selected to teach workshops are volunteers and are not paid for their service. To compensate for their time we require the Host to cover travel expenses (for in-person workshops only). We work to find local instructors, but suggest that you estimate about $2000 total ($1000 per Instructor) for the travel, food, and accommodation of the instructors. The details of how you will manage the instructors' travel are discussed once the instructors are confirmed and introduced to the host. The Carpentries is not involved in this process.

Contact Us

Someone in your region is waiting to speak to you about The Carpentries and/or to request a workshop! We invite you to contact your Regional Coordinator or request information about our workshops to start the conversation!


Upcoming workshops

Click on an individual event to learn more about that event, including contact information and registration instructions.
swc logo ke Noble Hotel, Eldoret, Kenya
Instructors: Emmah Kimachas, Christine Markwalter
Jul 29 - Aug 1, 2024
dc logo us globe image Northern Arizona University, Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals
Instructors: Ann James, Gorata Malose, TAJUDEEN AKINOSHO
Jul 30 - Aug 1, 2024
dc logo us globe image UW-Madison (online)
Instructors: Trisha Adamus, Zekai Otles, Sarah Stevens, Erwin Lares, Heather Shimon, Grace Cagle
Helpers: Annika Pratt
Aug 5 - Aug 13, 2024
dc logo us globe image University of Delaware
Instructors: Zohaib Anwar, Ephifania Geza, Elnaz Amanzadeh Jajin
Aug 5 - Aug 8, 2024
cp logo us globe image U.S. Geological Survey (online) **
Instructors: Madison Langseth, Christopher Sherwood, Marc Hunter, Brandon Serna, Labeeb Ahmed
Helpers: Josh von Nonn, Bojan Milinic, Joshua May, C. Justin Mayers, Jordan Lubbers
Aug 5 - Aug 21, 2024
cp logo us K-State Libraries **
Instructors: David Molik, Tom Misilo
Helpers: Carolyn Jackson, Gwendolyn Sibley, Kendra Spahr, Carol Sevin
Aug 5 - Aug 9, 2024
swc logo za globe image The National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences - NITheCS
Instructors: Marie HIDJO, Daniel Adediran, TAJUDEEN AKINOSHO, Didier Barradas-Bautista
Aug 12 - Aug 16, 2024
cp logo us globe image Ohio State University (online) **
Instructors: Matthew Thompson, Elizabeth Campolongo, Jelmer Poelstra, Jessica Cooperstone, Horacio Lopez-Nicora
Helpers: Kelsey Badger, Andrey Kopanev, Jason Thomas, Menuka Bhandari, Flama Guevara-Guillen, Melanie Medina-Lopez, Aaron Wiedemer, Lydia Balogh, Maria Sholola
Aug 16 - Aug 19, 2024
dc logo us George Washington University
Instructors: Daniel Kerchner, Clark Gaylord, Chiraag Gohel
Aug 19 - Aug 21, 2024
cp logo za University of Cape Town **
Instructors: Marion Walton, Alette Schoon
Sep 4 - Sep 5, 2024
cp logo us globe image UC (online) **
Instructors: Stephanie Nielsen, Scott Peterson, Reid Otsuji, Tim Dennis, Kimberly Thomas, Kaija Gahm, Jose Nino Muriel, Geoffrey Boushey, David Palmquist
Helpers: Phredd Groves, Kristi Liu
Sep 9 - Sep 20, 2024
dc logo us University of Mississippi
Instructors: Savannah Kelly, Harley Rogers
Helpers: Kenaz Worthem, Achala Gaihre
Sep 9 - Sep 9, 2024
cp logo gb ICR Sutton **
Instructors: Rachel Alcraft
Oct 9 - Oct 9, 2024
cp logo gb ICR Online - teams (online) **
Instructors: Rachel Alcraft
Nov 11 - Nov 18, 2024
cp logo us Fort Valley State University **
Instructors: Jason Wallace
Nov 15 - Nov 15, 2024

** Workshops marked with asterisks are based on curriculum from The Carpentries lesson programs but may not follow our standard workshop format.

globe image Workshops with a globe icon are being held online. The corresponding flag notes the country where the host organisation is based.

Check out our past workshops here.

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