The Government has recently proposed to reforms the adult offender education system in England, with a greater emphasis on the results that education and training in prison delivers.
The Government has launched a report outlining radical plans to break the cycle of reoffending, by developing a stronger link between learning in prisons and the vocational and employability skills that employers demand.
In a new report entitled, Making prisoners work:Skills for rehabilitation, the government reveals measures to help increase the range and relevance of learning, focussing on the skills employers need.
Support more work opportunities in prison. Improve links with employers, ensuring where possible a relationship with employers has been established before release.Boost activity to prepare prisoners for apprenticeship opportunities on release. Focus learning delivery towards the end of prisoners’ sentences – linking it directly to needs in the labour market on release.
Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning Minister John Hayes said:
“Our goal is to make sure offenders understand there are viable alternatives to criminality. Rehabilitation through education works best when there is a strong link to meaningful work.
“I want to ensure that, for as many ex-offenders as possible, release is not followed by re-arrest, but by employment and re-integration into law-abiding society.
”We have ensured these reforms offer good value for the tax payer: money will go where it is most needed and will do most good.”
Many of today’s prisoners are behind bars because they think, for them, only crime pays. No-one amongst the many people they have come across in their chaotic lives has set their feet on the ladder that climbs from basic and foundation skills upwards to the skills that could make them employable and bring them a decent life by lawful means.