Seminar to help develop NIACE’s Offender Learning policy Friday, April 27, 2012 - 14:47

A seminar to help develop NIACE's policy on Offender Learning - on 26 April at Women In Prisons in London - was attended by HRH, The Princess Royal, and the Minister for Skills, John Hayes MP, as well as practitioners and learners.

During the seminar HRH, The Princess Royal, NIACE's Royal Patron, had the opportunity to meet learners who shared their experiences and talked about the impact learning has had on them. She also heard about the challenges facing adult education in prisons and secure estates and for offenders serving community sentences.

Sophie, a learner who shared her experience of learning while in prison and while serving a community sentence, said:

"Prison saved my life; the fact that I could do education made my life."

The seminar was also attended by a range of policy makers and practitioners from public and voluntary sector organisations currently working with or supporting offenders. The discussions focused on how best creative and flexible learning provision can support offenders and ex-offenders into employment, education, training and resettlement.

John Hayes MP, the Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning spoke of the transformational power of learning for offenders and of the importance of ensuring that learners inform the development and delivery of provision.

The feedback gathered from the day will contribute to the development of a new NIACE position statement on Offender Learning as well as a National Conference on Offender Learning this Autumn.

Carol Taylor, Director of Development and Research, said:

"Women in prison, English and Maths, skills and employment are the themes we will concentrate on, underpinned by raising quality, using the virtual campus and joining up of services within the estate as well as through the gate."

"The seminar was an encouraging next step in the development of this vital policy area. Too many people in prison and serving community sentences have been denied proper learning chances in life for many different reasons. However, learning in prison has the power to transform people's lives and, as Sophie said, can 'make their life'."

A montage of 'vox pop' statements from some of the delegates who attended NIACE's seminar