During the pandemic there has been very little activity in the Erasmus+ projects both on our side and on our partners'. In 2022 we finally see the society opening up again, and this also gives us the opportunity to travel and meet (in real life!) and learn from each other.

So far in 2022, the prison education at Åsane upper secondary school has been so lucky to receive two individual groups of prison teachers from Spain for job shadowing through the Erasmus+ programme.

In March 2022 Jose Montejano, Marta Barcala, and Marta García Prol from EPAPU Nelson Mandela / A Lama Prison, participated in job shadowing at Åsane upper secondary school, prison education. The Erasmus+ project that they represent is called Conocer, educar, reinsertar. The project also has a project at eTwinning, which you can find here: https://twinspace.etwinning.net/227458

The prisons visited were Bergen prison (high security), Bjørgvin prison (low security), The Youth Unit (15-18 year olds), and Fossane (post release unit). The students and teachers in the prison education classes were happy to meet with the teachers from Galicia, and in the Spanish class in Bergen prison the students in the Spanish class even had a lesson with "real" Spanish teachers!

You will find a video interview from the job shadowing by following the links below. In the videos we talk about experience and learning outcomes from the job shadowing. Anne Marit Bødal from the prison education at Åsane upper secondary school also participates in the conversation.

EPAPU Nelson Mandela job shadowing Åsane vgs 2022 1/4 Introduction

EPAPU Nelson Mandela job shadowing Åsane vgs 2022 2/4 The school counsellor

EPAPU Nelson Mandela job shadowing Åsane vgs 2022 3/4 Vocational education

EPAPU Nelson Mandela job shadowing Åsane vgs 2022 4/4 International cooperation

In April 2022, we received four teachers from the prison education in Valencia for a job shadowing at Åsane upper secondary school. Miquel Alandete, Margarita Gómez, Francisco Blasco, and Javier Bernardo work as teachers in an adult school called Presentación Saez, in Centro Penitenciario de Picassent in Valencia. They had two days of job shadowing in Bergen prison, Bjørgvin and the Youth Unit.

On Saturday the 23rd of April, we met at the post-release centre Fossane to learn about each others' work and to plan for further cooperation. Then we took our guests on a hike together with inmates from Bjørgvin prison, where we tested a part of the Bergen City Marathon course. Some of the inmates participated in the half marathon race on the 30th of April, and it was useful for them to walk parts of the distance to visualize the course and plan the race in advance. Geir Hundvebakke, who is Head of Staff at our school department in Bjørgvin prison, is also an experienced runner, and he contributed with both maps and useful advice for the participants.

We are very happy to finally be able to meet and talk to colleagues from other countries, and we hope to keep in touch with our new friends from Pikassent and Pontevedra. Learning about how thing are done in other countries is both useful and motivating, and it gives us a new perspective on how we do our own work. Thanks for the visit, and we hope to see you again!