Innovation, Development and Communication for a better education in Prison System Erasmus Project

Project Title

Innovation, Development and Communication for a better education in Prison System

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Inclusion – equity; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

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.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 293879,53 Eur

Project Coordinator

Penitenciarul Timisoara & Country: RO

Project Partners

• Department of Penitentiary Institutions
• UNIVERSIDADE DA BEIRA INTERIOR
• CEZA VE TEVKIFEVLERI GENEL MUDURLUGU
• QUALIFY JUST – IT SOLUTIONS AND CONSULTING LDA
• European Organisation of Prison and Correctional Services (EuroPris)
• CENTRUL PENTRU PROMOVAREA INVATARII PERMANENTE TIMISOARA ASOCIATIA
• UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST DIN TIMISOARA