In 2017 the European Commission Directorate General for Justice, highlighted its interest in the training of probation professionals. CEP was encouraged to work on creating a network of experts on the training of probation professionals at European level. This interest was formalized in the report prepared by the European Commission, “Evaluation of the 2011 European Judicial Training Strategy and preparation of the future 2019-2025 strategy”, which expanded the range of professional categories to be included in the new European Commission’s Judicial Training Strategy for the coming years and included probation professionals.

CEP members also highlighted their interest in the topic of education and training of probation staff. In a context of a rapid development of the criminal justice field and the growing importance of probation measures as more effective and with less economic cost, the training of Probation professionals has become crucial and challenging. In addition, the transfer of probation supervision orders between Member States has emphasised the need for comparable and equivalent practice across jurisdictions. In these circumstances, it is important to share knowledge and training expertise across Europe, train probation staff as specialized professionals and to share good practices, training methodologies and materials to assure quality training and practice.

CEP is working on the following objectives:

• to create a solid expert network in the field of education and training of probation staff at a pan-European level;
• to exchange experiences and best practices between countries and bodies in the field of education and training;
• to share knowledge updates in relation to legislative developments, intervention Guidelines from the European Commission and the Council of Europe and other research findings;
• to  have an information data base and central resource point on innovation and good practices presented at CEP expert network and other meetings on the CEP website.