After the successful first English webinar organized by the Czech Prison Service Academy in March 2021, the Czech participants asked for an additional pilot webinar before the next webinar, which takes place in June.
On 28th April twelve participants from three countries logged into the Skype for Business platform, in order to share their experience with COVID-19 in their prisons. Each of the Czech, Slovak and Latvian prison professionals informed about the pandemic situation and presented the most effective and innovative measures taken. A vivid discussion followed.
The initiative to organize an additional pilot webinar came from the Odolov Prison and the webinar was facilitated by the Prison Director Tomáš Kubín and the Psychologist and Press Speaker of Odolov Prison Gabriela Šafářová. The Czech professionals proved that they are ready to take on the role of experts in the future webinars organized within the language training programme.
The participants´ feedback confirmed the fact that, in order to keep the communication skills in English active, international webinars are one of the few possible effective forms of training. The Czech Prison Service Academy offers the opportunity to practice professional English online while at the same time creating the platform for international exchange of information and good practice. The participants agreed that face-to-face meeting would be much more efficient and pleasant. However, virtual language programmes may become complementary to the traditional English courses in the future.
Iva Prudlová and Kateřina Příhodová
