<< Background >>Recidivism entails the relapse of criminal behaviour, and unlike recorded crime rates in the European population, crime recidivism rates are reported to be as high as 59% in some countries (Fazel & Wolf, 2015). Former inmates have a higher risk of re-perpetrating than other offenders, implying considerable costs and contributing to societies’ criminality and violence (Anderson & Skardhamar, 2014).Prison work benefits inmates, and its potential contributes to a successful re-entry into society (inclusion into the community and no recidivism) are known (Alós et al., 2014), particularly its effects on long term sentenced inmates (Zanella, 2020). Several benefits of professional reintegration are known, alongside the success rates on re-entry into society (inclusion into the community and no recidivism) (Alós et al., 2014). Working to remain occupied has fewer benefits and a positive impact than working to achieve a qualified job (after completing the sentence) (Society for Human Resource Management, 2019). Therefore, other factors in prison work models should be considered, such as the positive impacts of acquiring skills in industries in need of human resources compared with the acquisition of competencies in already served industries – the first is known to offer higher employability rates (Alós et al., 2014).According to a study from the Society for Human Resource Management (2019), job recruiters have struggled to recruit for full-time regular positions in skilled trades such as electricians, plumbers, mechanics, welders, carpenters, transportation, namely drivers, construction and extraction workers in mining, community and social service workers, such as therapists and social workers and manufacturing industry. Another study has determined that, in an international context, the European industry will need 400 thousand more workers by 2030 (Manyika et al., 2017). These needs will be primarily felt in the textile, clothing, leather and footwear industries. In Europe, these industries represent an annual business volume of 200 thousand billion euros and employ 2.2 million people in 225 thousand companies.Prison services are challenged to increase the quantity and quality of prison work available, and their staff are in the spotlight and still with no continuous learning offer to develop their competencies on the field. Prison work has been a recurrent topic for many national and European projects throughout the past years - and STEP2LAB intends to complement these. This project focuses on building competencies on both sides, targeting adults and organisations involved in Prison Work, either from prison administrations or from specific private industries, alongside the inmates. This project aims to work with prison services and private industries in need of manpower, teaching them how to acquire competencies to create effective and collaborative itineraries of socio-labour integration for inmates. It also targets a younger audience, seeking to capacitate and motivate lighter sentences or end-of-sentence individuals to pursue a professional career and follow a sustainable living project. This project will provide to eases the prison management to the staff (Molleman & Leeuw, 2011), the reinsertion process of the inmate (Solomon et al., 2004) and the chance of (re)incarceration (Zanella, 2020), among others.<< Objectives >>STEP2LAB aims to target adults participating in Prison Work from prison services or members of specific private industries in need of manpower. Individuals tend to gain a whole series of skills to compete in the labour market, facing a limited support structure to help them achieve economic independence. This, combined with the community’s negative attitude towards employing ex-inmates, means appropriate support networks ought to be established to employ individuals, educate, train or enable them to access other support services such as work opportunities. This project is focused on enhancing prison work by developing a model to support cooperation between prison work and private industries. It seeks to provide effective career options to inmates, preparing them during the sentence and favouring a positive return to society of those imprisoned and fulfilling prison sentences. In concrete, the targeted adult learners include (1) inmates, (2) prison staff and (3) professionals working in private organisations and civil society organisations. In specific, STEP2LAB aims to address the needs of these target groups by providing a capacity-building package to both prison services and private industries in terms of setting effective prison work strategy, configuring a model suitable to each country needs. It will introduce continuous improvement protocols, define standards of cooperation with employers, and empower their staff to deliver standardised and certified induction training corresponding to the labour market offers after release. Its specific objectives include:- Create a replicable process to enhance prison services and private industries collaboration to create and implement complete procedures of inmates’ employment;- Create a model of guidance, training and insertion based on a collaborative approach between prison services and private industries enhancing the development of the career plan, including continuous learning, job qualification and employers’ preparation for the recruitment of inmates’ after release, tested with 36 inmates per participant country;- Create a standard to an induction training to be provided to inmates’ willing to acquire new competencies necessary to be employed in a specific economy industry, testing it with 36 inmates per country;- Design a training of trainer’s course to be delivered to prison and private industries staff on setting up and managing STEP2LAB processes and models. The project wants to pilot with 36 inmates per country, providing vocational guidance, a package of basic competencies induction in a specific industry, developing a career plan, and testing internships programs while completing the prison sentence.<< Implementation >>The STEP2LAB project structure foresees three different groups of activities:- Transversal activities that follow the project lifespan and ensure project management, dissemination, and evaluation; - R&D activities that provide coherent development of the proposed solutions according to the current needs and international experience (Project Result 1, Project Result 2, Project Result 3); - Piloting, roll-out, and mainstreaming activities ensure the adequacy and sustainability of the proposed solutions over time (Project Result 1, Project Result 2, Project Result 3 and Project Result 4).Project Result 1. Manual: Model of guidance, training and insertion (GTI) into the labour market.This Manual analyses how guidance, training, and labour support are provided in each prison service, especially in collaborating more effectively with private organisations while keeping public functions and responsibilities. What is the role private companies offering PW opportunities can play in the GTI process? How do prison services and private organisations set up the collaboration? What are the benefits for all sides: prisons, inmates, private organisation and society, of having an integrated approach and what do they need to achieve it?This project result will provide a Manual to be used both by prison and private organisations staff, seeking to increase the potential of the GTI path. Activity 01-1. Review existent manual for GTI processes cooperationActivity 01-2. Design a train the trainers for practitionersActivity 01-3. Deliver 1 pilot – including the testing with 36 inmates in each countryActivity 01-4. Deliver 1 transnational manual with the national chapterProject Result 2. Training: Private industries induction training for inmates. The first axis for a GTI process is guidance, but the second and most critical one is the training. This project will review how prison services and private organisations work together when setting up candidates to enter specific industries. Afterwards, it will design an induction training for a new career path, using the industry of moulds. It seeks to provide inmates with essential competencies, enabling them to access job opportunities and motivate them to invest in a career path.Activity 02-1. Induction courses review Activity 02-2. Design course curricula and courses organisation protocolsActivity 02-3. Partners exchange of training materials, setup of pilot and development of the induction training courseActivity 02-4. Deliver 1 to 2 pilot coursesProject Result 3. Catalogue: Integration Case Studies. Each GTI process implementation will be follow-up by the evaluation and quality analysis tools. The application of these tools will allow the project partners to create the inmate’s induction reports. These GTI reports, especially those regarding pilot actions (work-based component) implementation, will assure the quality of results and impact. Some GTI processes will be selected and presented in a catalogue to work as promotion and best practices to other industries and within the same industry in different geographic areas.Activity 03-1. Design of catalogue structureActivity 03-2. Selection of GTI casesActivity 03-3. Piloting Catalogue with industry and industriesActivity 03-4. Catalogue development guideProject Result 4. Training: Train the trainers. The training the trainer activity will tutor Prison Services and Industry Associations on the guidelines, framework and workflow of the GTI cooperation process. This capacity-building course will be vital to help internalize and mainstream GTI processes, and facilitate industry engagement.Activity 04-1. Design course curricula based on case studiesActivity 04-2. Develop and partners exchange of training materialsActivity 04-3. Set up a Learning Management System (LMS) platformActivity 04-4. Deliver 1 pilot course to train the trainers in each countryActivity 04-5. Embed the manual into annual training<< Results >>There is little controversy in the literature when considering the positive impacts of prison work for inmates. Studies show that work in prison goes far beyond an opportunity to receive an income for inmates: it is the primary instance for socialisation for prisoners, offering a context in which they can develop a sense of ownership, fulfilling an essential therapeutic and educational role in the resocialisation of inmates (Esteban et al., 2014). The mentioned impacts vary hugely according to a wide range of factors present in prison work models.Another aspect mentioned in the literature is the lack of rigorous evaluations of such prison work programmes (McEvoy, 2008). STEP2LAB builds on these findings by promoting competencies for a specific target group: adults and organisations involved in Prison Work, either from prison administrations or from specific private industries in need of manpower. Plus, the targeted adult learners include:- Inmates;- Prison staff;- Professionals working in private organisations and civil society organisations.STEP2LAB aims to address the needs of these target groups by providing a capacity-building package to both prison services and private industries in terms of setting effective prison work strategy, configuring a model suitable to each country needs. It will introduce continuous improvement protocols, define standards of cooperation with employers, and empower their staff to deliver standardised and certified induction training corresponding to the labour market offers after release. The project results will be developed sequentially and include a set of activities structured to create the innovation process. There will be information and knowledge to be used to develop the following project results and piloting. The list of foreseen outcomes is presented below: - Manual: Model of guidance, training and insertion into the labour market- Training: Private industries induction training for inmates- Catalogue: Integration Case Studies - Training: Train the trainersSeveral programmes implemented in prisons worldwide focus on recidivism’s prevention, which is essential to rehabilitate incarcerated individuals (Patterson, 2013). This project seeks to achieve this outcome alongside promoting higher employment rates among the ex-inmate population, as prison work benefits inmates and potentially contributes to successful re-entry into society (Alós et al., 2014).