Only those persons who have acquired competencies to plan, realize, motivate, direct educational activities and evaluate the educational outcomes in prisons can carry out this responsible function. Beside the problem of the variety of inadequate professional qualifications of educators, there is also the problem of inappropriate training after formal education. Taking into account that significant number of employees in prisons are not professionally competent to work with the deprived population (they did not acquire adequate competencies through formal education), additional education should become compulsory, regardless of the long-standing experience these employees have. Only a well-trained staff, through lifelong non-formal and informal learning, could be useful for organizing and working on the re-socialization of prisoners and reintegration. The main objective of the project refers to development of the framework of basic andragogical training program for prison educators. It is important to carry out this project in international cooperation because of the differences in approaches to prison education in different European countries, variability of educational structures of prison educators and prisoners, different problems and ways of solutions prison education is facing across Europe, different ways in which the lifelong education is perceived and recognized as a factor of improvement of educational staff in prisons and prisoners re-socialization and reintegration. All this differences (conceptual or practical) contribute to the holistic understanding of the prison education issues and support the process of delivering universal program framework of basic andragogical training for prison educators. Coordinator of the project Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators (BATPE) is Serbian Association of Andragogists (SAA) from Belgrade (Serbia). The partners on the project are institutions that expressed intensive passion, motivation, readiness, willingness, availability, great recognition of prison education issues and the space for their improvement by participating in this project. The exceptional values they bring to the project refer to their experience in the field of adult education that takes place within correctional institutions. The partners on the project are Koinè, the voluntary organization from San Felice a Cancello (Italy) and Gebze Public Education Center (GPEC) from Gebze (Turkey). The project will be realized through several phases: initial introduction of partners, preparation, Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators (BATPE) program/curriculum development and handbook/manual design, evaluation and dissemination. Related mixed joint and independent activities of all partners formally involved in the project, as well as associated partners not formally involved in the project should contribute to the most significant outputs of the project: Program for Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators (BATPE) and Handbook of Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators (BATPE). Since we are not focus on program application but exclusively on its development, the program impact refers to the raise of awareness and interests of local, national and international bodies devoted to the issues of prison education about the importance, possibilities and opportunities of permanent education of prison educators in holistic and universal manner as a means of improvement of working and living quality of prison staff and prisoners, development of prisoners competencies needed for their social reintegration and reduction of recidivism rate among ex-prisoners. This impact should be made primary through dissemination activities with a special tendency to involve governmental representatives in the process of incorporation BATPE program into the systems of formal education which will ensure systematic permanent and continuous education of prison educators. We recognize the success in this tendency as the definite assurance of the sustainability of the project outputs. If we take into account the application of the BATPE program in the future its impacts could refer to: - development of prison educators competencies needed for successful work with imprisoned adults (andragogical competencies comes to the first place) - at the national level of countries within this partnership, but also at the international and regional level; - improvement of the working and living quality of both, the prisoners and prison staff at the national level of countries within this partnership, but also at the international and regional level; - development of prisoners literacy, social and working skills needed for their successful reintegration in society, at the national, but also at the regional and international level; - decrease of recidivism rate among ex-prisoners in national and international context.
Taking into account that significant number of employees in prisons are not professionally competent to work with the deprived population (they did not acquire adequate competencies through formal education), additional education should become compulsory, regardless of the long-standing experience these employees have. The main objective of the project refers to development of the framework of basic andragogical training program for prison educators. It is important to carry out this project in international cooperation because of the differences in approaches to prison education in different European countries, variability of educational structures of prison educators and prisoners, different problems and ways of solutions prison education is facing across Europe, different ways in which the lifelong education is perceived and recognized as a factor of improvement of educational staff in prisons and prisoners re-socialization and reintegration. All this differences (conceptual or practical) contribute to the holistic understanding of the prison education issues and support the process of delivering universal program framework of basic andragogical training for prison educators. Coordinator of the project Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators (BATPE) is Serbian Association of Andragogists (SAA) from Belgrade (Serbia). The partners on the project were institutions that expressed intensive passion, motivation, readiness, willingness, availability, great recognition of prison education issues and the space for their improvement by participating in this project. The exceptional values they brought to the project refer to their experience in the field of adult education that takes place within correctional institutions. The partners on the project are Koinè, the voluntary organization from San Felice a Cancello (Italy) and Gebze Public Education Center (GPEC) from Gebze (Turkey). The project was realized through several phases: initial introduction of partners (the 1st Transnational meeting), preparation (content analysis of the relevant documents - policies, strategies, scientific publications, handbooks, etc.; interviews and focus groups with the representatives of treatment and education staff in prisons and relevant external educational deliverers of prison education; consultations with representatives of associate partners not formally involved in the project; brainstorming on the issues of relevancy, reaching possibilities and applicability of defined indicators and ways these indicators should be addressed through our program.), Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators (BATPE) curriculum and manual design (the 2nd Transnational meeting - mutual sharing of the results of previous activity; harmonization and final definition of indicators referring basic andragogical knowledge, skills and competencies that prison educators need for adequate work with adults in prisons; mutual elaboration of methods (planning, organizing, realizing, evaluating) to be incorporated into the program for basic andragogical training for prison educators, evaluation (joint correctional activities referring improvement of BATPE) and dissemination (public presentation of BATPE program/manual through mas-media; presentation of BATPE through scientific publications; presentation of BATPE on EPALE platform; introducing BATPE to governmental bodies with a view to take into consideration its incorporation in formal educational system). Related mixed joint and independent activities of all partners formally involved in the project, as well as associated partners not formally involved in the project should contribute to the most significant outputs of the project: Program for Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators (BATPE) and Handbook of Basic Andragogical Training for Prison Educators (BATPE). Since we were focused exclusively on the BATPE development, the program impact referred to the raise of awareness and interests of local, national and international bodies devoted to the issues of prison education about the importance, possibilities and opportunities of permanent education of prison educators in holistic and universal manner as a means of improvement of working and living quality of prison staff and prisoners, development of prisoners competencies needed for their social reintegration and reduction of recidivism rate among ex-prisoners. This impact was made primary through dissemination activities with a special tendency to involve governmental representatives in the process of incorporation BATPE program into the systems of formal education which should ensure systematic permanent and continuous education of prison educators. These impacts were measured through the final inquiry which involved relevant persons who were provided with the BATPE curriculum and manual. Also, the self-evaluation of the project outputs and process were pursued.