Literacy news
'Military style' education will boost prisoners' skills
3 Aug 2012
The courses for prisoners will consist of 54 hours of lessons over two weeks with more help if needed. The classes will begin in six jails as part of a drive to cut re-offending.
The new courses are to be based on a successful programme which gives new military recruits intensive maths and literacy courses relevant to their day-to-day work. Follow-up research by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education has shown that the courses not only boosted the the recruits' basic skills but their confidence and future careers. This was true even of those who had poor experiences of learning at school.
Skills Minister John Hayes said:
We are determined to make prisons places where people learn skills to build lives beyond crime.
This pilot is about ensuring prisoners are more likely to work than commit crime when they leave.
Breaking the damaging cycle of re-offending and re-imprisonment will not only turn around the lives of countless prisoners, it will also prevent the suffering of their potential victims and reduce the burden on the taxpayer.
Business Secretary Vince Cable added:
Crime blights lives both for the offender and the victim. That is why we are piloting this programme in prisons so we can give prisoners the basic skills they need to get their lives on track.
Starting in August, six jails in North West England will pilot the programme: Manchester, Garth, Kirkham, Lancaster Farms, Styal and Altcourse. It will be rolled out in other prisons if it is successful.
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