The Focus Groups for probation workers have ended

Friday, 28 August 2015 15:22 |

The ten focus groups within Project “European Standards in Probation Training” have ended. The activity was conducted under a specially developed for this purpose methodology. The aim of the activity is to examine the needs for trainings of the probation workers in the country.

The focus groups were conducted in five cities in northern Bulgaria and five cities in southern Bulgaria where the Regional Probation Offices are located. In each focus group there were twelve workers.

The subsequent report-analysis from the survey concluded the following: the initial training of the probation workers, which is obligatory by law and conducted by the training centre in Pleven, is useful but insufficient for those working in the penitentiary system. Its untimely or belated conduction after the employment of the probation worker is considered a major problem. This creates prerequisites for the workers’ hindered orientation and adaptation to the organization especially in the critical initial period. A huge number of the probation workers who have taken part in the focus groups have done different additional qualification courses and trainings for increasing the level of their professional qualification but they are more or less a product of their personal initiative and not a purposeful and systematic policy implemented by the General Directorate of Execution of Penalties. Trainings directly related to the probation activity nature or to the contingent peculiarities are rather rare. The prevailing trainings are focused on foreign languages and computer literacy.

The need for a thorough training and understanding of the European practices for law enforcement and probation activity can be considered as the general conclusion of the report. A huge number of the workers share that they have never been in contact with the foreign experience in this field.

It is necessary to be built and developed a system for a continuing training and qualification of the probation workers which is characterized by regularity, a good topical structure, and adequacy of their needs and necessities.

In terms of the initial and continuing professional training the participants in the focus groups point out the necessity for including topics related to the work with drug addicts, individuals who are carriers of radicalism, and people with mental disorders and intellectual disability. They also point out the necessity for preparation for the sphere of the organization and conduction of an individual and group work with conditionally released individuals, trainings for social skills, and psychology of criminal behavior.

Two major conclusions can be outlined. First, the efficiency of the initial training which is conducted after the probation workers are employed should be improved. Second, an integral and consecutive system of a permanent training which is related to the specific character of the activity and the workers’ necessities should be built.

Project “European Standards in Probation Training” has been funded by the Norwegian financial mechanism 2009-2014 under Programme BG15 “Corrective services including no enforcement of detention measures”.