TOY - Trainers Online for Youth
This is a reference for Gabriel Brezoiu
The PRISMA EU10 Seminar aimed to strengthen the quality, relevance, and strategic impact of youth work at European level by bringing together experienced youth workers and organisational representatives. The activity focused on enhancing participants’ understanding and application of European quality standards in youth work, fostering innovation in green, digital, and social youth work, and supporting long-term cooperation between organisations. Additionally, the seminar aimed to reflect on the past decade of the PRISMA Network and to collectively shape a shared vision and strategic direction for future collaboration.
The training addressed several key needs identified among youth organisations and youth workers, including the need for improved quality assurance in Erasmus+ and international youth projects, better integration of current European priorities (such as sustainability, digitalisation, and social inclusion) into youth work practice, and increased organisational capacity for strategic planning and partnership development. It also responded to the need for practical, transferable resources and shared learning, ensuring that knowledge generated during the activity could be disseminated beyond the immediate group of participants through the seminar booklet.
The PRISMA EU10 Seminar gathered a diverse international group of youth work professionals and facilitators from across Europe. The activity brought together 30+ participants representing organisations from 15+ different European countries, ensuring a wide range of cultural and professional perspectives. Participants included youth workers, trainers, NGO leaders, project managers, and organisational representatives from 15+ Erasmus+ Programme Countries actively involved in non-formal education and youth work practice.
The training activity was entirely based on non-formal learning methods, placing participants at the centre of the learning process and encouraging active participation, reflection, and peer learning. The methods used supported experiential learning, critical thinking, and the practical application of knowledge in real youth work contexts.
Key non-formal learning methods included:
Participatory workshops, where participants worked in small international groups to explore themes such as quality youth work, green, digital, and social youth work, using guided tasks, discussion prompts, and visual facilitation tools.
Peer learning and experience exchange sessions, enabling participants to share practices, challenges, and solutions from their own organisations and countries, fostering mutual learning and comparative reflection.
Group work and collaborative problem-solving, focused on analysing real-life youth work situations and developing joint strategies or project ideas aligned with European priorities.
World Café and structured dialogue formats, used to facilitate inclusive discussions, collect diverse perspectives, and co-create recommendations and future actions.
Reflection sessions, both individual and group-based, using guided questions, learning journals, and debriefing circles to support self-assessment and consolidation of learning outcomes.
Field visits and experiential learning activities, allowing participants to engage directly with local initiatives and reflect on the transferability of practices to their own contexts.
Visual and creative methods, such as mapping, canvases, and collaborative posters, used to support strategic thinking and collective vision-building.
All methods encouraged voluntary participation, learning by doing, intercultural exchange, and reflection, fully aligning with the principles of non-formal education and the quality standards of European youth work.
The activity had the following deliverables:
- the PrismaEU10 awareness campaign
- PrismaEU10 Booklet https://www.geyc.ro/2025/05/publication-prisma-eu10-seminar-booklet.html;
- followup project ideas;
I was one of the leading trainers in charge of coordinating the pedagogical programme and engaging the participants in networking activities.