Starting today, prison inmates in Ireland will be offered the chance to participate in a new home retrofitting pilot programme as an “upskilling opportunity.”
The training will be offered to prisoners who are soon to be released for minor offences in Dublin’s Wheatfield and Portlaoise’s Midlands Prison, and will provide inmates with a Retrofit Skills Course QQI Level 5 component award.
Higher Education Minister Simon Harris saying that the scheme will help to reduce the risk of such inmates re-offending.
“We know we need to do more to improve education and upskilling opportunities for people in custody to support their rehabilitation and employment post-release,” Harris said.
“These courses will give them the skills they need to get sustainable jobs on release, while also creating skilled workers to help deliver on our targets under Housing for All.”
In addition to this, Minister of State at the Department of Justice James Browne said that this plan would offer prisoners an opportunity to “move away from criminality.”
“Education and training allow people to see alternative choices, a different future and to move away from criminality,” he said.
“We can’t underestimate the importance of taking an employment focused view of education in our prisons.”
The training is set to be offered by the Laois Offaly Education and Training Board’s National Construction Centre at Mount Lucas – an initiative of the Prison Education Taskforce.
This year the taskforce also intends to roll out a pilot of various prison apprenticeships as well in pursuit of the same goal.