The Prison Education and Re-Entry Programme, Faculty of Education, is currently a partner in the SkillHUBS Project. This project revolves around the upskilling, and in cases of longer prison sentences the reskilling, of prison inmates. It focuses on basic and transversal skills, recognising that both are essential for the world of employment.
The aim of this project is to introduce the SkillHUBS model into prison education systems. This model provides a framework of individual skills assessment, recognition, validation and development by prison personnel. The ultimate aim, however, is to produce a model for ‘training the trainer’ within a prison setting. This would involve a thorough manual with examplars aiding trainers for successful prisoner education.
To provide a strong groundwork, the Programme has provided each partner with tools for collecting data for a needs analysis in relation to prisoner skills. For this, 140 inmates were interviewed in the partner countries. These interviews identified the most urgent needs in terms of the provision of prison education within the partner countries. To name just a few: age and gender gap, nationality, language and communication barriers, as well as security features.
At the time of writing, there is a five-day training programme in Leicester, the UK, going on. Twenty professionals with different roles from four EU countries are working together, sharing experiences and expertise in prison education.
To keep abreast of the training week, as well as all the other deliverables SkillHUBS has and will produce please visit the project website www.skillhubs.eu.