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Hollesley Bay A4e And Mitie
Hollesley Bay began in 1887 as a Colonial College training those intending to emigrate. In 1938 the Prison Commission acquired Hollesley Bay to train young offenders in the Borstal system. In 1983 Youth Custody replaced the Borstal system and in October 1988, when the CJA 1988 came into force, Hollesley Bay became a YOI. In 1982 Warren Hill opened to accommodate Cat C young offenders in a closed environment alongside Hollesley Bay Open prison. In April 2002 though retaining some shared services, Hollesley Bay and Warren Hill became separate establishments, the Open complex retaining the name Hollesley Bay. The establishment provides different regimes for adult Category D offenders - life sentence prisoners at the end of their custodial time and young offenders. It has a population of 365.
Kevin Morris is the Education Manager employed by A4e who are the holders of the OLASS contract for providing education within the prison. Kevin started his teaching career seven years ago, working with mainly disengaged young people with few or no formal qualifications. During this time he trained as a maths teacher, then taught for a couple of years at a large FE college. Having experienced and enjoyed the rewards of helping the hard to reach to gain qualifications he then took the post at Hollesley Bay where he could be involved again in courses offered to disadvantaged people. Something he finds very rewarding.
Kevin’s role at Hollesley Bay is to oversee all the Skills Funding Agency, OLASS education provision. This includes Construction courses that involve bricklaying, painting and decorating, plastering, plumbing and multiskills. Also delivered are more academic courses such as Maths and English, plus courses on personal development, horticulture, IT, cookery and employability training.
Hollesley Bay is the prison part of an interesting partnership between MITIE and A4e which is designed to give offenders an incentive during their skills training to perform to their very best. The real incentive is a job with a large reputable firm on release. Those who are not offered a job, yet successfully complete the course, leave custody with a much enhanced CV and work record that has been externally monitored. Adding to the offenders’ chances of obtaining good employment.
Custodial Review visited the prison to see the partnership at work and after a guided tour by John Algar, Head of Reducing Reoffending, discussed the tie up with Kevin.
CR The Prison has a training tie up with MITIE. Who are they and what is this tie up?
KM MITIE provide services to a wide range of companies and government departments. They employ a lot of skilled tradesmen and have a very ethical approach to their work. They also believe in giving something back to the communities they work in. So they sponsor a course within the Education Department that gives inmates getting real work experience whilst here and then can lead to a job when they leave. It ties in very well with us because we already have extensive construction workshops where we teach the range of skills that MITIE needs within their organisation. They bring business experience, we bring the trade qualifications. So it is a win -win situation from the inmates and our point of view.
CR What is the MITIE scheme and how does it operate?
KM It’s an additional level of training and assessment on top of what we already provide. Think of it as a finishing course. In the last 8 to 12 weeks before release we try to help inmates seamlessly progress into employment or training on the outside. We try to replicate the real word, so to apply for the scheme prisoners need to fill out an application form and be interviewed, just like if they were applying for work.
What makes the scheme different from the existing courses we deliver is the added value and employability focus. Participants have two weekly appraisals with their tutors, replicating the ‘real world’. These appraisals assess some of the criteria currently not covered by the City & Guilds and B-Tec trade qualifications they study towards. We worked closely with MITIE to discover their expectations of employees and found that in addition to the trade skills, areas such as time keeping, aptitude for tasks, personal appearance, motivation, initiative, team work, communication and tool maintenance were considered to be as important when recruiting for new staff. The appraisal process allows us to evidence these areas and support participants in making improvements that will help them gain employment. Those on this scheme will also take part in an employability course, which has been developed to help participants with job hunting techniques.
CR What does this employability course consist off and what effect does MITIE involvement have?
KM Each week their representative joins our employability tutor to help with CV and letter writing, job hunting and interview techniques. The scheme participants really appreciate the support they are receiving and really take on board what he has to say. It has also really boosted the self esteem for some. Many see having a criminal record as a brick wall to gaining employment so often see and focus solely on self employment. It really is beneficial to them to actually see, first hand that there are companies such who judge on merit and not solely on mistakes made in the past.
CR Do MITIE always offer employment to the inmates who successfully complete the course?
KM No, it would be great for all participants to gain employment with them, but this really isn’t possible or the main point of the scheme. It’s certainly not a free ticket to a guaranteed job, far from it. We are equipping these men with the skills to find jobs for themselves with any organisation. It happens to be MITIE that we are working with, but I’m sure many other companies have the same expectations of their candidates. From the first group, or cohort, we know 2 participants gained employment with other companies in the construction industry and we had feedback that this was a direct result of the course.
CR What other benefits does this have in job seeking endeavours?
KM There is a lot of valuable information that comes from this scheme that participants can use in their search for employment. For instance, each participant receives a MITIE Passport on the day of release. It’s a memory stick containing their CV, covering letter, photos of their course work and appraisal reports. The appraisals completed by the Tutors can be used as excellent supporting evidence towards a job application. It enables them to show a prospective employer that they also have the additional workplace skills that are not covered by City and Guilds. Also, as it has the endorsement or a large well known employer who was involved in the assessment process, such a report will carry considerable weight when considering a candidate for employment.
CR This is an open prison, so if a prisoner chose to have a lie in and so be late to work one day, or he decided to kick back or take advantage of a sunny day instead of training then it’s possible for them to do?
KM Yes, they still have to get to the workshop on time and there are distractions that they could be tempted by. So a record of good timekeeping and reliability is a very valid issue. This is something covered in the appraisal process. Importance of timekeeping and reliability is also a major part of the employability course.
CR What other examples do you have of the tie up with MITIE helping change inmates’ attitudes?
KM An example is the change in attitude towards CV writing. We already deliver excellent employability courses and we have very qualified people who in previous careers have held senior positions within large companies. They have the experience to tell someone what skills they need to be considered for employment, such as writing CV’s etc. However there is a big difference between your Tutor or a large company telling you that is what they require before you apply for a job with them. So the people who wish to get on the MITIE course now view a CV as something they really want to do and have been actively asking for help in doing so. Its quite amazing the change in attitude to something that was once just seen as a necessary evil.
CR What is the system for inmates getting on the course??
KM MITIE have a property services division in Colchester. Applicants CV’s are sent to a Regional Manager who assesses them before requesting interviews, in much the same way as they would process applications from advertised jobs. These interviews are either carried out at the prison or the inmates go to MITIE’s Head Office on a day release licence. These interviews are a real time experience in a real environment and there is a place on the course here at Hollesley Bay at stake if they do well. This sort of job application experience is invaluable to someone who has never sought regular work before. It brings home what the employability tutor has been teaching them and so they take on much more of what they have been taught.
CR How many might apply for the course, what are the acceptance criteria and how many would get interviews and places on the course? How many who get on the course get jobs with MITIE and what happens to those who do not?
KM Eight were taken on in the first cohort and as more come into the time frame for the course they join in, we could have up to 15 on the scheme at any one time. The number taken on is dependant upon recruitment needs at the time and how the inmate performs in the whole scheme. Those that are not offered posts leave with a much enhanced CV and better equipped to gain good employment.
CR When did the scheme begin and what has been the popularity and take up?
KM It started on the 31st January this year and we recruited 10 onto the first cohort and 8 went on to complete the course. The other two were returned to closed conditions. The course has really been bought into by the prisoners. We have seen some successes, as an education and training provider it’s essential to us that we see some progression through the gate. Inmates must get into full time work or training as it’s a proven way of keeping them out of prison.
CR I can see the benefit to A4e and the prisoners, but what does MITIE get out of it and what does it cost them?
KM MITIE is a company that takes its corporate social responsibilities very seriously and this is part of that policy. In addition they have experienced the recruitment issues that have come about as a result of the skills shortage. It’s also noteworthy that they know far more about a prisoners’ ability to do the job and their skill set than they do about someone they recruited through more normal channels. It’s a minimum 8 week appraisal and there are all the personal and working records prior to that period on which the educator’s opinions can be based. For them it’s as good an appraisal system for prospective employees as can be had.
CR Has anyone yet gone all through the process and obtained a job with MITIE?
KM Yes, so far we have had one full cohort pass through the scheme and one of them has now stated with the company. We have managed to stay in touch with most of the rest of the cohort and we know that at least one has started work in the construction industry. One from the latest cohort is awaiting the outcome of internal discussions about offering him a job. So it all looks good.
CR What type of offender do you have here, is there a full range of age represented on the scheme and what effect has the scheme had on the willingness of the applicants to get on it and to learn?
KM We are an open prison with a full age range of male offenders from 18 years upwards. The scheme is open to all and we have had a wide range of applicants. It’s had a considerable effect, especially now that the first people are getting jobs when they leave. It’s created a considerable buzz about it. One thing that the prisoners want when they leave is a job; this is a way to a very good one with a very good company. That makes them want it and so work for it. Which is something they probably have missing from their lives.
CR Thanks for talking to the Review.
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