College Record 2017

Education and Offenders
by James Crabbe (SF), JP
I would argue that the shortage in skills in the United Kingdom is as wide as it was
in the 1960s. Addressing this requires novel approaches to learning and skills, not
least for those people in prison, and for those young people brought before the Youth
Courts. I believe that there is an opportunity emerging for new groups of actors to
play a significant role in improving outcomes; these include magistrates and the
University and Further Education (FE) sectors.
The ‘classic’ view of education, at least in the UK, is of a unilinear mode of
progression, from nursery / kindergarten to prep / primary school, to secondary, to
university / conservatoire / art school, to post graduate-research or the professions.
Further Education (skills and vocational training) features as a ‘second class’
alternative to University and its potential is neglected, particularly when it comes to
those whose early experiences of learning have been disrupted, distant or difficult.
The Coates Review on Education in Prison, published in May 2016, highlighted
the poor quality of much existing provision and advocated ‘high-quality vocational
training and employability skills that prepare individuals for jobs on release’ (e.g.
through industrial work and training designed with and for employers). In my
view, this should open the door to many further education colleges and universities
working with those in prison, on release and serving sentences in the community, at
the local level. The review proposed that, from August 2017, all governors be given
the freedom to choose which education providers they want to work with; the recent
replacement of the National Offender Management Service by Her Majesty's Prison
and Probation Service, and within this the new Youth Custody Service, may give
exciting scope for new provision. In addition to providing a potential new market
for college and university recruitment and partnership working in a financially
beleaguered sector, tertiary education institutions could deliver innovative
programmes to recruit and support students who have been involved in the criminal
justice system, to turn their lives around. This has the potential to open up new ways
of improving employability in local communities, and help to decrease skills gaps
and shortages so important in our economy. There are already excellent examples
of both universities and FE colleges who have provided programmes – including
doctoral programmes – for offenders and ex-offenders.
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