Implementation of European Border Guards ’ Common Educational Standards in Ukraine : Comparative Analysis

The paper reports on the results of implementation of European Union (EU) Common Border Guards’ (BG) training standards in Ukraine and presents the outcomes of the conducted comparative analysis of the EU and Ukrainian BG training systems. The research is aimed at analyzing the level of the Ukrainian BGs interoperability according to the European BGs’ training standards, namely - the Common Core Curriculum (CCC) for BGs’ training elaborated by the national BG Authorities under supervision of FRONTEX Agency. The obtained results provide information on the current state of the CCC implementation in the Ukrainian BG Agency and outline solutions for further development of the EU BGs educational standards in Ukraine. The results of the study showed that Ukrainian BGs and their system of education and training correspond to the European professional requirements in this sphere and the Ukrainian BGs can participate in joint operations to protect different border sectors together with the counterparts from the EU Member States. The comparative analysis, which involved 24 educational departments of the Ukrainian BG Academy showed that the overall level of CCC implementation is 77,5%. Implementation process revealed the following advantages of using common European BG standards: common understanding between the BGs from different countries; harmonizing educational standards across Europe; developing job competencies; enhancing cooperation among BG Academies and units; promoting CCC for BG authorities. The results also showed challenges of this process, namely: there is still not full recognition by the decision makers; lack of the expertise regarding European educational standards implementation; not enough national multipliers; difference of the national education systems, short training period at the national BG Academies. The possible solutions for these issues were also outlined: organizing workshops to train the personnel, ensuring mutual support from other institutions; finding different sources to fund the implementation process; requesting other governmental bodies for assistance; training of involved personnel; senior management awareness raising; involving stakeholders for co-funding purposes.


Introduction
Nowadays, it is impossible to ensure the state border integrity without a sufficient number of qualified professionals. Therefore, professional training of future Border Guard (BG) officers as a focused process of professionalism formation is of great importance nowadays.
The modern BGs' job by its nature is a -European‖ job, requiring collaboration, cooperation and coordination between the EU MS (Member States), Schengen Associated Countries (SAC) authorities and international agencies operating in the area of border control and migration. It is essential that the BGs from all MS and SAC can work together effectively in the joint operations organized at the -hot spots‖ of increased migration pressure, in the name of the European solidarity. One of the mechanisms to achieve this is to ensure that the European BGs receive training in accordance with the same principles and values, based on the same procedures and learning requirements, described using a common, shared language (Peres & Norris, 2017).
For this purpose, the FRONTEX Agency (EU Border and Coast Guard Agency) initiated the development and implementation of the Common Core Curriculum for border guard basic training (CCC) to the BG agencies of the EU countries (also in Norway, Iceland and Switzerland). This Curriculum is a set of measurable common standards for national border guard training institutions, teachers and students in the EU MS. It is the first common curriculum stipulating common standards for knowledge, skills and competencies for border guards' training (Common Core Curriculum for Border Guard Basic training, 2012). It was developed in accordance with the principles of Bologna and Copenhagen processes. CCC also fully corresponds to the 4 th and 5 th levels of European Qualifications Framework for Life-long Learning (EQF) and Sectoral Qualifications Framework for border guarding (SQF) (FRONTEX, 2013). According to Article 36(5) of FRONTEX Regulation, Member States have to integrate CCC into their national curricula (European Parliament Regulation, 2016). So, Ukraine, as a Partner Country of the FRONTEX Agency also joined this initiative.

Literature review
In the modern pedagogical and psychological literature, the BGs' training process in other countries have been studied by many scientists (Balendr, 2018;Rong-Zheng, 2014), also were stipulated the conditions for creating Common European BG Service (Carrera, 2010), and challenges of 3 the Quality Assurance in Border Guards Education (Zalitis, Zukova, Madzule, 2016), as well as practical aspects of the Ukrainian BGs training (Bloshchynskyi, 2017), and the research of European educational standards (Cunningham, 2014;Wagenaar, 2014). The Common Curricula Policy for the police officers' training was elaborated by European Police College (Common Curricula Policy, 2007). The Feasibility Study for the setting up of a European Border Police was carried out by EU countries (Final Report, 2002). However, our studies have shown that there is hardly any current thorough analysis of the problem of implementation of common standards for the EU MS border protection into the system of third countries' training. Therefore, the aim of the study is to perform a comparative analysis of the BGs' basic training systems in Ukraine and EU countries, describe the current state of the CCC implementation in the SBGSU and outline solutions for further development of the EU BGs educational standards in Ukraine.
In order to start the work on adaptation of the national BGs' training curriculum to the requirements of the EU countries Common Curriculum, Ukraine, as a Partner Country, joined the process of CCC implementation and started with comparison of the CCC content with the Educational Program (EP) of the National Academy of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine named after Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (NASBGSU), Specialty -The State Border Security‖.

Materials and Methods
The data for the research was collected using triangulation: monitoring visits to the border guard educational institutions, sending questionnaires regarding the level of implementation of CCC into national curricula and border guard students' evaluation. Prior to the monitoring visits, the CCC national multipliers were requested to fill the questionnaires regarding the current progress of CCC implementation in their educational institutions. The questionnaires contained general questions about the timeline of the CCC implementation as well as specific questions regarding the CCC content. It enabled the experts to elaborate on the responses, to find out details and ask for clarification during the monitoring visits.
Ukrainian BG Authority created a special working group on implementation of CCC into the national BG curricula. In 2017-2018 the comparative analysis of the level of the CCC implementation into the training system of the SBGSU was organized and conducted. The questionnaire and CCC content were sent to the chiefs of 24 educational Implementation of European Border Guards' Common Educational … Andrii BALENDR,et al. 4 departments of the NASBGSU with the task to analyze the certain department scope of training material as compared to CCC, bearing in mind that CCC was built as a much broader and all-encompassing program and it wasn't meant to be implemented to the full in each country.
The research, besides national BG agencies and FRONTEX Agency, involved such stakeholders as: International Organization for Migration (IOM), International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the key participants: National Training Coordinators, Participating Training Institutions, National Multipliers. The project activities coordination and data sharing was organized via educational and information web-portal Virtual Aula of the FRONTEX Agency.
The target audience for the survey was chosen based on the specialization relevance and was determined as cadets of the Border Security Faculty of the NADPSU, specifically -254 4th year cadets, future border guard officers.
The questionnaires contained multiple-choice items developed by the multinational team of experts of EU border guard agencies. The samples of the questionnaires items are shown in Table 1. You are carrying out first line border checks at your international airport. There is a passenger, a woman from Ghana, about 25-30 years old, presenting a valid passport for the border check. She cannot confirm the purpose of her trip, claims she is a tourist, but says she is going to stay in a hotel and watch TV. She is accompanied by an older woman, who she calls -Madam‖. Looks very shy and timid. What will be your next steps?

Variables:
A: I will refer her and the other woman to the second line for a detailed interview to check the possible case of THB. B: I will check the validity of the presented passport, ask her the term of intended stay and present additional documents confirming the purpose of stay, after that I will affix a border stamp into the passport and will allow the passenger to cross the border. C: I will allow the passenger to cross the border, because there no reasons to ask any additional questions. D: I will refuse her to enter the country, because she cannot confirm the purpose of her trip.

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 Chose one correct answer between four alternatives

Stimulus + Question:
A group of football fans arrive at the BCP. They travel by coach. During the border checks, it is found that they possess some dangerous tools like baseball bats, nunchaku, knuckle-dusters and other objects which could be used against other people.

Variables:
A: You have to explain them that they will be refused to enter EU on grounds of public policy unless the travellers accept to dispose of the dangerous equipment before crossing the border. B: You have to deny them entry to EU, because the objects found can present imminent danger to life of other people. C: You have to call the intervention team, handcuff them immediately and search them. D: You inform them if they want to take all these objects with them across the border, they have to fill in a special form for weapons transportation.
Correct answers: A…

Results of Research
The paper presents the findings of the study on implementation of CCC into the national curricula of the BG agencies of EU countries and Partner Countries (Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine), as part of the -Eastern Partnership -Integrated Border Management Capacity Building Project‖ under the auspices of the FRONTEX Agency. The study started in 2014 and finished in 2018. The article highlights the results of the CCC implementation into the system of BGs training in the SBGSU, namely in its basic educational establishment -NASBGSU.
The main idea of the all-European CCC is that all BGs should have the same level of interoperability, which means to operate together and perform service duties according to the same professional standards. In terms of the CCC it means they have to learn the content of the general BGs' functions from Common Studies Chapter of the CCC in accordance with national legislation and needs. Depending on the needs of the national BG Service, they can also study one or more modules. For example, if it is expected that the BGs will operate on the land border and at airports, they June, 2019 Educaţie Multidimensională Volume 11, Issue 2 7 will, in addition to the Common Studies, cover the modules "Land border" and "Air border". As for the structure, the CCC for the EU BGs is composed of the General Studies and Modules "Air Border", "Land Border " and "Sea Border". The purpose is determined for each module. The subunits are divided into different topics. Each topic includes descriptors of knowledge, skills and competencies and also methodology of assessment and recommended learning methods (Figure 1). The training subjects contain a variety of topics. Each topic includes the purpose, the duration of lessons within the topic, the short content (training questions), the method of implementation (form and method of teaching). The program includes internships in the departments of the SBGSU. Evaluation methodology is an important component, which is described in the topics of the NADPSU EP.
The Structure of the EP on the Specialty -The State Border Security‖ at the NASBGSU is composed of the following elements (Table 2)  The obtained results were brought together by the working group taking into account the discrepancies in the purpose, structure and content of the CCC and EP. The first column shows the degree of implementation of a specific topic, marked as: Totally, Partly and None. The second column displays the estimated time including time for teaching, learning, practical sessions, evaluation, internship. 1 academic hour equals to 45 minutes. The third column includes the learning methods, marked as: P -Practical exercises, L -Lectures, OJT -on-the-job training during the basic training, S -Self-study, E -E-learning, Si -Simulator based training (Table 3).

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8.3 National legislation P 6 L,S,P 9. Sea border-related specific practice P 106,5 L,P,S 9.2 Cooperation in sea border issues P 8.5 P 9.3 Technical equipment P 98 L,P,S Altogether, the NASBGSU EP content analysis shows that overall level of CCC Implementation (Totally and Partially) is 77,5%. Taken  The CCC modules -"Air Border", "Land Border" and "Sea Border" are very informative, constructed in such a way that their material develops and complements the knowledge and skills given in the "Common Studies". These modules can be included in any national curriculum as an independent element or divided into sub-units, combined with relevant topics of other modules.
The Common Studies of the CCC addresses topics to supplement basic training with special skills and knowledge, which are required to perform service duties at airports, sea ports, automobile, railway BCPs. Such modules or analogues of such modules do not contain the initial training program. The EP provides basic knowledge to the BGs, without dividing them into cadets, who will continue to serve on different borders (land, air, sea). Thus, it can be concluded that preparation for different modules is relevant, but does not take place today at the NASBGSU.

Discussion
Nowadays, there are some common trends in the development of professional training for BGs in EU countries. They are caused by globalization and integration processes in Europe and in the world, such as: harmonization of professional training through the introduction of common standards; well-preserved national traditions; deviation from military traditions; creation of departmental system of continuous vocational education; intellectualization and humanization of learning; active and professional character of the training process, providing quality assurance mechanisms.
The researchers from Latvia: Zalitis I., Zukova M. and Madzule I., note that in order to implement common goals and objectives in BG training it is important to set common requirements and a single quality of a ‗product', which is referred to quality of the BGs training. As a solution the authors insist on centralized training for personnel which is prepared to participate in joint operations. For several years the work on the development of common and obligatory training modules, which are introduced into BGs training programs in all EU MS is being carried out effectively enough, such as CCC for the EU Border Guard Basic Training (Zalitis, Zukova, & Madzule, 2016). Recently, the military content of the law-enforcement activity of the border agency was brought up. It is based on the experience of combat employment of BG units in the East of Ukraine, where BGs have to operate in complex, non-standard and conflict situations at the state border, combating sabotage-reconnaissance groups and illegal military formations.
In Ukrainian BGs' training system there is one peculiarity that stands out and has no analogies in European BGs' training systems. Since 2014, considering the complex situation in Ukraine and experience of the protection and defense of the southeastern border areas of the state, new models of cadets training based on practical execution of law enforcement and military objectives were developed; basic qualifications for graduates were corrected. In view of this, 2/3 of the teaching hours are allocated to the study of professionally oriented subjects, 70% of which are practical classes. Also, target reorientation on military specificity within the lawenforcement function of the border guard agency was performed. It was based on the experience of combat employment of border units in a rapid change of the situation and localization of conflict, non-standard situations at the state border, combating sabotage-reconnaissance groups and illegal military formations. Cadets' military training at the NASBGSU now is performed in order to enrich and improve knowledge acquired during lectures, and to improve practical skills in performing duties in BG units under real conditions (Bloshchynskyi, 2017).
Speaking about the BGs' education and training in EU countries, first of all we should mention the influence of Bologna and Copenhagen processes, which stand out as the European solutions to achieving transparency, convergence, comparability and compatibility of qualifications in higher, respectively vocational education, as well as mobility of learning and learners, quality assurance, employability and international competitiveness. One of the main goals of FRONTEX is capacity building in the MS and SAC with regard to operational and training capacity, through organizing exchange-mobility programs, setting standards of excellence, through harmonization of requirements and procedures. Inclusiveness, representativeness and cooperation are key principles that lead FRONTEX activities, promoting the integrated border management concept with high standards of fundamental rights, performance and leadership (Peres, 2017).

Conclusions
So, despite the fact that training of Ukrainian BG Agency personnel has been carried out in Ukraine at a sufficient level for many years, it should be constantly improved, taking into account the best achievements of international pedagogical experience, including the experience of higher educational institutions in the EU countries. The process of CCC implementation revealed the advantages of using the common BGs standards in EU, such as: common understanding between the BGs from different countries, harmonizing educational standards across Europe, increasing job competencies, enhancing cooperation among training institutions and operational BG units, promoting CCC for BG authorities. Although, the results also showed challenges of this process, namely: still not all of the decision makers recognise the importance of the CCC and its benefits to BG Agency: lack of the expertise regarding SQF for BG; not enough national multipliers, difference of the national education systems, short training period at the national educational establishments, etc. The possible solutions for these issues were also outlined: organizing workshops to train the personnel, ensuring mutual support from other institutions; finding different sources to fund the implementation process; requesting other governmental bodies for their assistance in implementation process; promotion, briefing, training of the involved personnel; conducting awareness raising meetings with senior management; involving other stakeholders and interested organizations for co-funding purposes (IOM, UNHCR, ICMPD).
The obtained results of the study, based on the comparative analysis of the respective Curricula, allows to conclude that the level of Ukrainian BGs interoperability with the counterparts is enough to ensure their