Prisons may not be the first places that spring to mind when thinking of education and training provision. However, offering training while in custody through partnerships with industry can hold the key to both effective rehabilitation – thereby reducing reoffending – and to helping meet skills shortages across a range of sectors. This article will explore where prison-employer partnerships can facilitate the link between training and rehabilitation and draw on successes from Serco’s own adoption of the approach across 286 academic and vocational courses, with 14,000 qualifications and accreditations achieved by prisoners in Serco’s care during 2024. We’re making attendance at such courses a strategic priority, recognising the link between the structure they offer and effective rehabilitation.
Chris Clifford, Head of Education, Skills and Work at Serco
Based on government data, over a quarter of people who left prison between January and March 2023 went on to reoffend, creating new victims and ultimately increasing the strain on the prison system. An obvious solution to this challenge lies in offering meaningful employment to those leaving custody, given that those who are unemployed six weeks after release are more likely to reoffend. There are challenges, of course; many leavers struggle to reintegrate socially and economically, and some employers are reluctant or unable to offer employment to those with past convictions.
Building skills for life: Serco’s approach to in-custody education
Training offers a long-term solution to breaking this cycle, equipping prison leavers with the necessary skills to enter the workforce and make a meaningful contribution to society and reducing their likelihood of reoffending. In turn, this approach helps to maximise prison capacity.
At Serco, we focus on this relationship between training and rehabilitation both in the prisons we run and post-release, ensuring that prison leavers have the skills needed to obtain jobs while shortening the time between leaving prison and entering employment.
One way in which we have been doing this is through employer partnerships, which see organisations offering both training in our prisons and employment outside of them. For example, HMP Fosse Way offers practical training through partnerships with organisations including Life Cycle UK, PCE Limited and Bakers InsideOut Academy. This provides training for skills in modern, high-demand industries, including construction and waste management, increasing the opportunity for employment post-release and helping these industries to address their own skills gaps.
Innovative programmes with real-world impact
At HMP Ashfield, the Serco team have created an in-house digital art, design and printing company called Dijiprints, which goes beyond industry training to help prisoners build important workplace skills that can help them secure employment post-release, offering a NOCN (National Open College Network) Employability Qualification alongside its NOCN Digital Skills Qualification.
The training offered across our prison estate also extends to roles that have a direct social impact. For example, our work with Restart Dogs involves prisoners in the training of accessibility dogs, with the added benefit of offering them animal therapy through ongoing contact with the dogs.
Importantly, these training programmes don’t just equip prison leavers with the practical skills needed to secure employment; they also facilitate the development of life skills such as responsibility and teamwork, aiding their reintegration into society and instilling them with a sense of purpose. For example, at HMP Dovegate, prisoners participate in a rehabilitation program that involves assembling furniture for companies like Cosy Direct, a supplier of educational and childcare furniture. Through this hands-on work, prisoners gain valuable skills in manufacturing, teamwork, and quality control.
But Serco’s role doesn't stop when prisoners leave our facilities. Once released, it is crucial that this training is put to good use through meaningful employment.
In addition to operating prisons, Serco also delivers the Restart scheme in West Central England and Wales for the Department for Work and Pensions. This scheme supports the long-term unemployed, including prison leavers. Those who have not found employment after release and have received Universal Credit for six months can access a twelve-month tailored programme of support. We’re also exploring opportunities to offer Restart Scheme-style employability support to prisoners before leaving custody.
We’re also committed to offering opportunities to prison leavers to join our own business. In 2019, we launched an initiative to guarantee interviews to those who meet the minimum requirements of a job and declare having a criminal conviction in their application. This scheme is still important today. Part of our approach to providing greater access is our support for the ban the box initiative, helping to offer fair opportunities for prison leavers to secure employment post-release.
The whole lifecycle approach to prisoner training and employment we take from both inside and outside our prison walls is indicative of the importance of such schemes in facilitating effective rehabilitation, reintegration and reducing instances of reoffending. The success of these schemes, with 14,000 qualifications obtained by prisoners in our care during 2024, shows the impact and importance of partnerships which can bridge the gap between release from prison and successfully entering back into society. We know from experience that these partnerships really work, and they’ll be crucial as part of the UK’s wider programme of judicial system reform.