Training scheme launching at Erlestoke Prison helping offenders gets jobs on release
It's already helped thousands across the country
A scheme is going to be launched at Erlestoke Prison to help inmates earn professional qualifications to give them a better chance when they leave.
The Clink training kitchen scheme is being rolled out to 25 further prisons, including Wiltshire's Erlestoke, having already helped over 2,500 offenders into stable and secure jobs since launching just over a decade ago.
Research shows that ex-offenders in work are more likely to turn their backs on crime for good, with prisoners who have taken part in The Clink’s training scheme almost a third less likely to go on to commit further offences.
The programme sees prisoners train in professionally-run prison kitchens for up to 35 hours a week.
The Clink Chief Executive, Christopher Moore, said:
“The roll-out of The Clink Kitchens project over the next three years to 70 prisons in England and Wales, will enable us to continue to repair society and support the hospitality industry that has a major skills shortage.
“Social mobility is at the heart of many companies’ recruitment agenda and employing a highly trained Clink graduate not only is a benefit to their business but increases the diversity of their workforce.”
Prisons Minister, Alex Chalk, said:
“Prisoners with a job on release are far less likely to reoffend – meaning if we can provide the path to employment, we can make our communities safer.
“As we continue to build back safer from the pandemic, it is absolutely vital that we continue to address the root causes of crime by supporting offenders to turn their lives around – and this scheme will do precisely that for thousands of ex-prisoners.”