Strong evidence shows that having a stable job is key to avoiding re-offending. With 52 per cent of male and 71 per cent of female adult prisoners having no qualifications, employment prospects after prison can seem quite bleak.

In the current financial climate, the employment prospects of former prisoners is even worse with UK unemployment having risen to 2.261 million, the highest since November 1996, the Office for National Statistics said.

NOMS, the National Offender Management Service, discovered that 64 per cent of offenders’ numeracy and literacy levels are below the average eleven year old’s.

There are various schemes throughout different organisations to help tackle the problem and help former prisoners in finding employment.

The Job Centre Plus, for example, has the New Deal Scheme which is aimed at the general population as well as former offenders. Through the New Deal service they claim to help the individual to increase confidence, gain new skills so they become a valuable employee, and to sustain their employment status. This is all helped through the help of a personal advisor who helps to develop their CV, develops an action plan and who provides various support.

 

Employment in the Voluntary Sector

Various organisations like Job Centre Plus recommend former offenders to try working in the voluntary sector to begin with. Anne Mae, a resettlement helpline officer from NACRO, the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, said:

“We always recommend to prisoners if they can’t find employment that they make use of  voluntary positions so they can add it to their CV, increase their confidence and they can get valuable experience in the field that they’re interested in.”  

Steven Wallace: likes the New Deal Scheme

 

Steven Wallace, age 43, is former offender has been in and out of prison since he was 17 as he stole to support his heroin addiction. Now clean and rehabilitated since 2004, he finds the job centre’s New Deal Scheme very helpful in finding work. He said:

“The Job centre has a computer program that tells you your strengths and weaknesses and what kinds of jobs you’d be good at. They don’t want to set you up to fail. I’m finding them really accommodating and they do their best. I managed to work in Wilkinson’s and in a charity shop for a while.”

 

Success through Entrepreneurship

Theon Coleman: a former prisoner who runs his own business

 

Other former prisoners find success in entrepreneurship, where they don’t have to face being rejected in job interviews after disclosing convictions. Theon Coleman, aged 23, a reformed crack cocaine drug dealer with remorse for what he did in the past, said:

“I got introduced to the Prince’s trust while I was in prison. One of the things they helped me with was a business course which helped me start up a community youth project. I got a £4,800 grant to run my project, called Infinite Possibility Recordings, which teaches young people how to make music.

“I got South West Young Achiever of the Year award in the Trust’s Celebrate Success Ceremony for that, and I narrowly missed the Young Achiever of the Year Award.”

 

 

 

Listen to what Theon Coleman has to explain what employment prospects for former prisoners are like.