Staff continued to receive training in 2020, although some countries reported an initial postponement and some delays due to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic (for example, Finland and Slovakia). In Belgium, protection officers attended a training course on sexual orientation, and CEDOCA developed a new training programme on country of origin information (COI) in an online tutorial format (see Section 4.12).

In Bulgaria, regular quarterly workshops and training were organised for case officers from the territorial units by legal advisers from the Quality of Procedure Directorate. In addition, case officers from the territorial units were presented with case law from administrative courts to improve the quality of decisions. 

Through cooperation with the office of the ombudsperson and UNHCR, training in Czechia was provided on common modules on evidence assessment, examination of cases on merit and application of the recast Qualification Directive.