Prison services are being continuously challenged by society to deliver a complex mission: implement judicial sanctions, keeping society safe of harmful individuals, while preparing inmates return / release with resources that work to prevent recidivism on criminal behaviour. Prison staff, not only educators (social workers, psychologists, etc..), are challenged to comply with this complex mission, but only a minority have specific qualifications in educational and social sciences. Prison personnel consist in its majority of prison guards (officers), which have mainly surveillance responsibilities, and administrative staff placed at operational sections. Normally, these staff groups did not attended in specific transversal skills training courses. The absence of specific training actions has an impact in the introduction of innovative educational practices and actions, due to, among other reasons: new learning and teaching methods knowledge; difficulties in presenting and participate effectively in implementing; the need to develop more communication to present innovative proposals. We must understand that guards and administrative staff are central in the system, among other reasons; they interact with inmates on a daily basis and can provide critical inputs to their daily life in custody. So developing transversal skills can tackle inefficiencies and increase the number of innovative opportunities lost in the VET actions preparation and implementation processes. This project gathers Universities, training organizations, companies and prison services organizations, aiming to develop work-based joint curricula - to be delivered in a blended learning format using ICT, intensive transnational short-term training courses on transversal skills, namely: innovation and entrepreneurship, communication, ICT and teamwork. Integrated in the courses trainees, in “local teams”, will have to create pilot actions targeting inmates VET participation, supported by knowledge exchange with ICT platforms, community of practices/knowledge, study visits and other events, etc… These training courses are aligned with Declaration of Bruges, Prison organizations and EU recommendations for adult education. The project focus on delivering value integrated in training courses throughout the implementation of work-based sessions. Trainees can verify the added value of participanting in training actions directly in their work context. Program goals alignment: • develop new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to prison staff teaching and learning; • stimulate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills of prison system education teaching staff, guards (officers) and administrative staff; • facilitate the exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge trough a work-based joint curricula, piloting, conjoint training sessions and other activities Project goals will focus on achieving: 1. Create 3 joint curricula and training programs: work-based VET training courses to develop innovation, entrepreneurship, communication, ICT and teamwork competencies in prison staff; 2. Train 144 prison staff in innovation, entrepreneurship, communication, team work and ICT to develop and implement innovative education actions inmates, with transnational short-term trainings (1 for each training) 3. Develop, improve and pilot new education actions for 160 inmates 4. Promotion of VET innovation in prisons through 4 seminars (3 national and 1 international) and engagement of experts and key stakeholders in 8 validation workshops 5. Delivering 12 outputs, 10 centered directly to VET innovation in prison, 1 to ensure dissemination and exploitation strategy efficacy and 1 to assure outputs quality and transferability Other objectives are foreseen to be pursue, but the mission is to improve prison VET actions for inmates. IDECOM believes better prepared and motivated staff can make prisons a gateway to a second opportunity in society.
Prison services are being continuously challenged by society to deliver a complex mission: implement judicial sanctions, keeping society safe of harmful individuals, preparing the inmates for reintegration in the society and to prevent recidivism. Prison staff, not only social reintegration specialists are challenged to comply with this complex mission, but only a minority have specific qualifications in educational and social sciences. Prison personnel consist in its majority of prison guards (officers), which have mainly surveillance responsibilities, and administrative staff. Normally, these staff groups did not attended in specific transversal skills training courses. But they interact with inmates on a daily basis and can provide critical inputs to their daily life in custody. The absence of specific training actions has an impact in the introduction of innovative educational practices and actions. Taking into consideration this reality, the project was created and implemented in order to develop the transversal skills of prison staff from different departments. During the project implementation, the activities contributed to innovation and improvement in prison education. The project goals which were achieved: developed new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to prison staff teaching and learning for enhancing innovation, entrepreneurship, communication, ITC and teamwork skills, to stimulate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills of prison educational staff, guards and administrative staff and to facilitate the exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge trough a work-based joint curricula, piloting, conjoint training sessions and other activities. The project consortium gathered 8 partners from 5 countries: Penitenciarul Timișoara-Romania, Centrul pentru Promovarea Învățării Permanente-Romania , Universitatea de Vest din Timişoara-Romania, Departamentul Instituțiilor Penitenciare- Republic of Moldova, Qualify Just - IT Solutions and Consultancy Lda-Portugal, Ceza Ve Tevkifevleri Genel Mudurlugu Turkey(General Directorate of Prisons and Detention Houses), European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services(EuroPris) –Netherlands and Universidade Da Beira Interior-Portugal. The project partners conjointly worked on developing three conjointly curricula - these were delivered in a blended learning format using ITC, including intensive transnational short-term joint staff training events on: innovation and entrepreneurship, communication, ITC and teamwork. Within the courses there were integrated activities towards creating pilot actions targeting inmates participation, supported by knowledge exchange on ITC platforms, community of practices/knowledge, study visits and other events. The project impact and the achieved results were: 1. 3 new conjointly curricula and training programs to develop skills such as: innovation, entrepreneurship, communication, ITC and teamwork competencies for prison staff; 2. 146 prison staff were trained in innovation, entrepreneurship, communication, team work and ITC in order to increase their professional level and implement innovative education actions with inmates. The courses included transnational short-term joint staff training events. The impact of the training activities was of a high level, the trainees achieved new knowledge, developed the targeted skills which became useful for their daily work, exchanged good practices and experiences in international teams. 3. 18 new education actions with 386 inmates were developed and implemented having a real impact in the improvement of prison education; 4. 11 intellectual outputs were produced, 9 centered directly on innovation in prisons: “Staff training need analysis”, “Training course curriculum and program: Develop prison staffs’ innovation", "Entrepreneurship for prison staff-training course curriculum and program”, “Communication, ITC and teamwork competencies in prison- training courses curriculum and programme contents”, ”Conjoint learning management system”, “Conjoint manual Develop prison staffs’ innovation", “Conjoint manual Entrepreneurship for prison staff”, “Conjoint manual Communication, ICT and teamwork competencies in prison” and “Education and Training innovative actions catalogue”. For ensuring the efficacy of the dissemination and exploitation strategy and assuring outputs quality, the “Dissemination plan report” and “Quality and Evaluation Report" were developed. 5. 10 multiplier events were organized-4 seminars and 6 validation workshops; the participants contributed at the improvement and the evaluation of the outputs. The project will have longer term benefits because the produced intellectual outputs will be used in the future for life long training of prison staff. Also the last product contains a description of the implemented innovative educational pilot actions with inmates and will be used by education departments to improve the reintegration programs for inmates.