Employees of the Academy of the State Customs Committee (ASCCA) successfully completed the first “Train the trainers” course within the framework of the "Training and Operational Partnership Against Organized Crime" (TOPCOP) project organized by the European Union Law Enforcement Training Agency (CEPOL) in CEPOL headquarters in Budapest, the capital of the Republic of Hungary, on July 11-15, 2022. Along with ASCCA staff members Firuza Karimova and Taira Akhundova, a representative of the Police Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan was represented in the training. Including Azerbaijan, nine representatives of three other countries (Georgia, Moldova, and Armenia) from the six partner countries included in the EU Eastern Partnership program took part in the training.

The main aim of the training, whose target group includes the staff of the training centers of law enforcement agencies, is to present how learning and technology can complement each other in the training process of the target groups, blended learning and training methods, improving the design and preparation of training programs, as well as LMSs and the their features, as well as increasing the ability of trainers to use various digital resources to organize their training activities more efficiently.

According to the agenda of the onsite training based on practical experiences, the project manager Christos Konstantinidis and trainers conducted sessions on learning paradigms and principles, ID (instructional design) models and needs assessment, practical activities with "Moodle", "collaborative" learning, creation of teaching philosophy. and other related topics. 

The participants successfully completing the training, as well as the employees of the ASCCA, were awarded CEPOL certificates on the last day of the course.

Financed by the European Union (EU), organized by CEPOL for the countries of the Eastern Partnership (EaP), in partnership with the Republic of Azerbaijan, the TOPCOP project covers the period 2020-2024. The selection and participation of the Azerbaijani customs service bodies for the trainings is carried out through the ASCCA. Since May 2021, the Academy is a partner and coordinating body of the TOPCOP project in the direction of capacity building and organizing trainings in the field of customs in Azerbaijan. The national coordinating body of the project is the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On account of the partnership of the Academy with TOPCOP, staff of Azerbaijan customs service authorities have gained the right to participate in numerous courses, modules, seminars, webinars and trainings implemented within the project.