The Convicts Upskilling Pathways Project

The project ‘Convicts Upskilling Pathways’ (CUP) is an experimental learning initiative aimed at designing and piloting innovative training modules and monitoring tools for the upskilling of 70 women, 120 men and 20 youths in six European prisons to promote their longer-term employability. The three-year project (August 2019 to August 2022) is co-financed by the EU Erasmus + programme. It is composed of an international partnership coordinated by Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation and spanning four European countries including Italy, Greece, Cyprus and The Netherlands. The project’s overall goal is to improve the medium to long-term employment prospects of women and men detained in European prisons in order to promote their social reintegration. Specifically, CUP aims to design innovative training modules (Skills developer blueprint) and an easy-to-use scalar evaluation tool as a means of embedding learning of soft and basic skills aimed at enhancing the medium and long-term employability of convicts and former convicts. From 29 June – 01 July 2021 the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, ITCILO, and the CUP partnership convened a “Sharing Lessons” online training targeted at practitioners and managers from all partner organizations in order to train them on the application of the Skills Development Blueprint and the Impact Evaluation toolkit for the development of training modules adapted to their own unique context. OBJECTIVES • Acquire knowledge and practical skills about CUP innovative methodologies findings and products (learning modules, evaluation tools and advocacy tools) • Learn to use the innovative methodologies and products in their day-to-day strategic and operative planning • Use the methodologies to develop learning modules tailored to their unique prison context and learning objectives • Engage with practitioners from other CUP countries in a community of practice to share knowledge and experiences CONTENT • Presentation of the Skills Development Blueprint and the Impact Evaluation toolkit • Exchange with international experts on projects and operational and advocacy strategies for upskilling convicts • Group work per stakeholder type to collect inputs on the training module • Group work per country to collect inputs and suggest improvements on the training module • Final feedback and next steps for the testing phase of the training modules ACHIEVEMENT Number of hours : 30 hours The course was composed of a preparatory asynchronous material followed by a three days online synchronous experience-sharing moments. Specific webinars with international experts were also offered throughout the event. Participants were provided with the opportunity to learn from any location, at any time of the day. The course was highly interactive and engaging.