Offender Learning and Skills
Our offender skills and employment pages provide information on Government policy for the general public, journalists and researchers and offer signposts to further sources of information
Re-offending is costly to society. The National Audit Office has assessed the cost of re-offending by prisoners as between £9.5 billion and £13 billion a year. Evidence shows that prison education and vocational interventions produce a net benefit to the public sector ranging from £2,000 to £28,000 per offender (or from £10,500 to £97,000 per offender when victim costs are included): we are determined to secure those savings for the public purse.
While punishment will always be a primary aim of the criminal justice system, the Government is determined to do more to turn offenders away from crime and into work, improving their skills, and encouraging them to lead productive lives.
Offender learning aims to ensure that offenders have the underpinning functional, employability and vocational skills that will enable them to gain worthwhile, sustainable employment and in-so-doing reduce the likelihood of re-offending.
On 18th May 2011, John Hayes, the Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, launched Making Prisons Work: Skills for Rehabilitation, at the Association of Colleges’ offender learning conference. His speech can be viewed here. The document sets out the Government’s reform programme for offender learning, following the Minister’s announcement of a wide-ranging review in July 2010.
The document can be found here (PDF, 360 Kb) .
