Project “VET Support for Serbian Detention Facilities”, EuropeAid/130043/C/SER/RS, is funded by the European Union, managed by the Delegation of the European Union in Serbia and implemented by HD ECG (Serbia) in consortium with BfW (Germany) and Aarhus Technical College (Denmark). Objective of this project is to improve the employability of adults serving a prison sentence, thereby facilitating their re-socialisation after release. The Purpose of the project is to assist the Ministry of Justice in the establishment of a sustainable and productive system of vocational and educational training (VET) in prisons.

No vocational training or primary education has been provided in Serbian detention centers since 1991. This project is aimed at restructuring and training of the rehabilitation teams in prisons in order to establish vocational training programs that would enable the inmates to be trained for specific trades, preventing them from turning to crime again. A special pedagogue from Correctional institute of Sremska Mitrovica, Natasha Andanovski, praised the trainings for correctional professionals, as very useful and abundant with practical solutions. ’’This sort of training, through interactive learning, where we start from the clear aim and look for the best solutions to reach it, motivate participants to persevere and contribute. A convicted person is an Individual who needs to spend time learning so when he or she leaves prison they are able to work and earn”. Another special pedagogue from the correctional institute of Pozarevac, Mr. Vladimir Petrovic, thinks that trainings are useful and informative. ‘’Although I posess considerable experience, this training helped us to be more flixible and efficient in the educational process. Direct contact with the prisoners allows better quality of work.” The project team will organize a series further trainings for officers who work directly with prisoners, and those who are in charge of policy making at the state and institutional level.