European Penitentiary Training Academies Network
The first EPTA online event took place on 23 April 2021 on Leadership and Management, which was presented by EPTA’s Special Interest Group 1 (SIG1) and organized by NHC and the EPTA secretariat. The members of the SIG1 group are Smiljka Barancek (Training Centre for the Prison Staff), Nadja Kunzle (College of Justice, Estonian Academy of Security Sciences), Nadya Radkovska (General Directorate Execution of Sentences), John Flavin (Irish Prison Service College) and Anki Staaf (Prison and Probation Service Training and Education).
John Flavin gave an introduction to the content of the published training manual that was followed by several interactive discussions. The discussions were about the current practices of leadership and management training during the pandemic and the expectations of the practices to be used in the future. Most of the participants shared that at the beginning of the pandemic, there were a lot of challenges experienced by the institutions regarding the use of online platforms for the necessary training. In some countries, the leadership training was put on hold until live training sessions could take place. Some of the other countries already adapted to the online environment. Moreover, a discussion took place on the specific technical knowledge but also soft skills required for prison leaders and how to best develop these in times where training possibilities are constrained. As a conclusion to these discussions, the overall expectancy for the future is that there will be a mixed approach when it comes to training sessions.
This event was a part of a series of online events presented by the three SIGs after publishing training manuals on topics: leadership and management, dynamic security and managing difficult inmates. These events are organized to familiarise the audience with the published training manual, which was developed as part of the EU-funded project ‘Tackling Gaps in Cross-Border Cooperation for Penitentiary Training Academies’.
Supported by the Justice Programme of the European Union
