APRIL 2020 COVER STORY
Lance Harris
heads up the
Ministry of
Justice’s
ex-off enders are available to work and have full
employee rights.
The success of the Network is signifi cant: it
has helped to employ over 11,000 serving
prisoners in over 400 business and government
departments. These off enders are learning skills
across a range of areas including engineering,
woodwork, clothing and textiles and printing.
Some of the most successful schemes have seen
prisoners at HMP Leyhill in Gloucestershire
helping to manufacture prefabricated timber
homes for Agile Modular Homes in Bristol, and
off enders at HMP Ford in Sussex using injection
moulding machines to produce the stems and
central buttons for Royal British Legion poppies.
The benefi ts of the scheme to employers are
signifi cant. Most obviously, it’s a chance to tap
into a skilled workforce – many of the prisoners
involved are trained in vocational skills. “This
includes basic certifi cation such as Performing
Manufacturing Operations or Keys Skills, where
off enders are completing assembly and less
complicated tasks, through to highly valued
National Vocational Qualifi cations and City &
Guilds Qualifi cations in machine operation,
such as CNC and CAD,” says Harris. “They can
even receive supplementary qualifi cations in
Warehousing and FLT driving.”
In addition, says Harris, “off enders often place
higher value on their jobs than other employees,
leading to good levels of loyalty and retention and
over 70% of companies that employ ex-off enders
would recommend others do the same.
“There is also evidence that employing exoff
enders can reduce initial recruitment and job
advertising costs. The CIPD has calculated that
fi lling the average non-managerial vacancy costs
around £2,000. Work inclusion initiatives, such
as opening recruitment up to ex-off enders, can
help reduce those overheads, saving organisations
substantial sums.”
Any concerns businesses may hold about
Virtual training during unprecedented times
One of the UK’s leading training providers has developed a new
way of making sure apprentices are able to continue their learning
during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In-Comm Training, which operates three technical academies
in Aldridge, Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury, will be delivering all
courses via a virtual platform, ensuring its 750 learners still have
access to industry experienced trainers and assessors when they
need them most.
The ambition is to make
it ‘business as usual’ where
the fi rm can, with individuals
able to complete tasks online
using Google Classrooms or
Microsoft Teams.
“Our fi rst concern has
negative public opinion are also
unsupported. Research shows
that three quarters of people
would be comfortable buying
from a business that employs
ex-off enders and 79% of people
think that businesses employing
ex-off enders are making a
positive contribution to society.
“Ultimately, working with
prisoners doesn’t just make
business sense but is also
helping to reduce reoff ending,”
says Harris. “Currently only
17% of ex-off enders manage
to get a job within a year of
release but we know that exoff
enders who do get a job are
up to nine percentage points
less likely to reoff end. Prisoners
can gain vital workplace skills
and experience, helping them
to secure employment in the
future and giving them a second
chance upon release.”
Could you be doing more?
A signifi cant cause of the skills
crisis has been an amount
of ambivalence towards
manufacturing, meaning school
leavers are less likely to consider
a job in industry. It’s easy to
blame schools, teachers and
parents for this, says Bull, but
manufacturers should also
look at their own recruitment
policy. Similarly, smaller, less
‘glamorous’ companies shouldn’t
bemoan the fact that apprentices
would ‘rather work for the
bigger fi rms.’
“Companies need to have
a look at where they want
the future of their business
to go,” she concludes. “They
can get support from training
providers like Make UK to get
them the right apprentices for
their business. Even if they
have gone through a traditional
apprenticeship programme, the
apprentice will have a set of
digital that can really help the
business grow.
“For our apprentices,
we’ve found that yes, there is
an appeal in working for the
bigger companies, but a lot of
them will choose to work for
smaller companies because
they really like the core values
and the brand beliefs of those
organisations. We’ve found,
especially in the past year or
so, that the values and what the
organisation stands for means
a lot. The most progressive
companies will be looking at
how they make a diff erence to
things like sustainability, because
for the guys that are coming
through the apprenticeship
programme now, that’s one
of their biggest things when
choosing an employer. We did a
lot of research a couple of years
ago about what inspires these
people. ‘Giving something back’
was one of the key things that
came out of that research in
terms of what young employees
in mind!”
are looking for – so bear that
our learners, sta and the employers we work with,
so we have had to cancel all on-site training at our
technical academies until further notice,” explains Bekki
Phillips, managing director of In-Comm Training. “The good news
is that learning can happen in many forms and we are still 100%
committed to supporting learners in developing their skills and,
importantly, achieving their qualifi cations.
“Virtual platforms like Google Classrooms and Microsoft Teams
are prefect for supporting apprentices on their journeys and we
can also use the technology to deliver some commercial upskilling
courses. We feel it is important for learners to still keep that faceto
face contact via video links as it can be the di erence between
understanding content, being able to ask questions and, in some
ways, keeping up morale. The technology will also be used be to
complete assessments, removing the need for our assessors to
make on-site visits.”
always been the safety of
www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk 21
/www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk