I made another visit to HMP Birmingham to participate in an Employer Engagement event coordinated by the Prison Employment team.
It has been clearly proven that if ex offenders can secure some form of training and employment on their release from custody, it has a significant impact on the likelihood of them reoffending. Therefore this event involved a number of local employers understanding more about the benefits of them participating in the employment of ex offenders. There was a strong representation from the construction industry which has a well established record of benefiting from such programmes.
We had a really useful tour of a range of the facilities within the Prison which enable prisoners to learn skills and get accustomed to working in a structured manner, which including gardening, woodworking, recycling, warehouse logistics and working in the kitchens in the preparation and distribution of food and beverages.