Face to Face Programmes

What is the ToT Course?

Gaia Education’s Training of Trainers (ToT) is a new approach to facilitation.

The course prepares you to lead, teach, facilitate and inspire through participatory methods.
You will learn how to create inclusive, transformative learning spaces that empower individuals and communities to take action.

Through hands-on practice, you will build confidence and gain practical tools to facilitate group processes, support collaboration, and become a catalyst for meaningful change—locally and globally.

See more information on the specific pages for each program, which take place only a few times a year in select locations around the world. English and Portuguese options available. 

Ecovillage Design Education (EDE)

Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) is an immersive and transformative learning journey, a profound and authentic experience to reconnecting with ourselves, with others, with nature, and with our deepest beliefs about life.

Through the 4D framework — Social, Ecological, Economic, and Worldview — participants explore community building, regenerative ecological design, solidarity-based economics, and the cultural shifts needed for a thriving future. The EDE is holistic and experiential, offering practical tools and inner transformation for building resilient communities and a regenerative world.

Our immersive Face-to-Face programmes are known to have transformed lives. Previous participants have become agents of positive culture change in their communities and regional economies, they’ve co-created social enterprises and cooperatives, started community projects and became trainers for sustainability themselves – to name only a few paths you can take afterwards. The course will equip you with skills and knowledge you will be able to put into action in any field or sector you are involved with.

Participants become change agents and sustainability designers, taking active roles in transitioning their existing communities, institutions and neighbourhoods, to more sustainable patterns of production and consumption, as well as leading more joyful, more meaningful and healthier lives.

Discover how to certify an EDE here

Mini-EDE

For many people, it is not possible to take time off work/family/school for a four-week immersive EDE programme. Our new mini-EDEs offer the possibility of experiencing the taste of a full EDE, maintaining the core values and following the 4D mandala, but in a shorter version.
Mini-EDEs are for everybody and particularly suited to young people. They can be held as youth camps or school clubs. Check out below some examples of mini-EDEs around the world!