Vocational training for more than 500 prisoners has been completed within the EU-funded project ‘VET Support for Serbian Detention Facilities’ implemented by the ECG led Consortium. In the past nine months, More than 500 inmates from three prisons in Serbia attended the vocational trainings and 95 % of participants successfully completed the training and received a certificate of acquired working competences. This has successfully established a system of vocational education and training of prisoners.

Inmates from the prisons of Pozarevac, Nis and Sremska Mitrovica were chosen for training in one of the five training fields offered: welding, printing, screen printing technique, woodworking and furniture production, and the manufacture of various kinds of bakery products and production of early vegetables in greenhouses, which are the occupations that have long been in short supply in the labor market in Serbia.

The purpose of their professional development and training is to increase employment opportunities upon serving the prison sentence, and to leave behind a criminal past in order to start earning a living legally and adequately. In a wider sense, this will ultimately have an impact on the reduction of the crime rate in society. The convicts have acquired their knowledge and skills within the facilities where they are serving their sentence. “If they develop some of their competencies and gain a professional education and practice through work completed in the facilities, they can later be competitive individuals in the labor market. Through this training they receive foundation on which they can build their future” said Mr. Damir Joka from the Administration for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration.

More than two hundred experts such as Counselors, Instructors and VET teachers, participated in the project. Employment Counselors have been specially trained to work with the prisoners upon their release from prison. The European Union, as the funding institution for the project, has donated two million euros for the purchase of equipment, system establishment and implementation of training. The project is part of wider support by the European Union to the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration to improve the system of rehabilitation of prisoners and the correctional system in Serbia. Specifically, this project aimed at supporting the Administration for Execution of Criminal Sanctions of the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration in establishing a sustainable and productive system of Vocational Education and Training (VET) prisoners in all prisons in Serbia.