Educational design in judicial education: application of the SCAN tool based on the example of the Netherlands

On 4 December 2025, the Netherlands Centre for the Training of Judges and Prosecutors (SSR), in cooperation with the National School of Judges of Ukraine, held a practical webinar on the use of the innovative SCAN tool to identify the training formats that best meet educational goals.

The target audience of the webinar was employees of the NSJU's structural units who develop training courses and coordinate educational modules, as well as lecturers and judge-trainers.

During the opening of the training, NSJU Rector Mykola Onishchuk noted that cooperation with Dutch partners within the framework of the memorandum signed back in 2023 is constantly developing. Thanks to this, Ukrainian judges have already participated in specialised training courses on war crimes, interpretation of evidence, forensics of mass graves, gender-based violence and the MH17 case. In addition, the School is currently actively studying the experience of applying the Dutch SCAN system to identify needs and assess the quality of training, which contributes to improving the effectiveness of judicial education.

Ivo Blommaart, Director of the Dutch Training Centre for Judges and Prosecutors, emphasised that cooperation with the Ukrainian School of Judges has been successfully continuing and strengthening for over two years. Today's webinar will be the eleventh in a series of joint events and its purpose is to exchange experience between the judicial education institutions of the two countries. The Dutch side will present the innovative SCAN training tool, developed to improve the effectiveness of training for judges and prosecutors.

The author of the methodology and webinar lecturer, Hester Stubbe-Alberts, who is a lecturer in educational sciences and responsible for the quality of SSR educational activities, familiarised Ukrainian listeners with the principles of the SCAN tool, which was developed on the basis of Moodle to build an effective educational training model. Participants learned about the structure of the tool, the basic system of learning objectives, and practical approaches to its application in the development of educational programmes.

The training took place in the format of active discussion and question-and-answer sessions, which contributed to the deepening of professional dialogue and the exchange of experience between Ukrainian and Dutch judicial education schools.

The introduction of the SCAN tool into the practice of the National School of Judges of Ukraine demonstrates a commitment to an innovative and systematic approach to the training of judges. Cooperation with Dutch partners not only contributes to improving the quality of training, but also opens up new opportunities for the exchange of experience and the introduction of advanced educational methods, which ultimately increases the professional competence of Ukrainian judges and strengthens the judicial system as a whole.