Ken Patterson - Kitchen Instructor and Assessor.
Most Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) instructors have a wealth of experience to pass on to prisoners, and now more than ever are becoming certified assessors and formalising their experience with qualifications such as the National Certificate of Adult Education.
In all 20 prisons around the country, 256 instructors are training around 1,725 prisoners in industries such as cooking and forestry, with the aim of helping them find a job when they’re released.
Ken Paterson is a Kitchen Instructor at Wellington Prison. He’s had 23 years of experience teaching prisoners how to cook and run a kitchen. Five years ago he became certified as an assessor – able to assess prisoners for NZQA unit standards.
“Being an assessor means I can help to give the prisoners I teach a qualification that recognises the skills they’ve learned,” he says.
CIE Activity Manager Len Wood works in Wanganui Prison’s kitchen, tutoring up to 24 prisoners at a time. Len recently achieved his National Certificate in Adult Education (Level 5).
Len’s had years of experience cooking and doing the teaching that he loves, and is positive about his new qualification.
“It was all based on training I’d already done, but the good thing is you know you can do that now. A colleague and I did it together and we put a lot of effort in.”
Training and Development Manager Herman Steyn says Ken and Len are good examples of experienced CIE staff instructors who have embraced the assessor role and the opportunity to formalise and enhance their capabilities by completing a qualification.
“By the end of the year, all our instructors will either be assessors or on their way to becoming assessors. This means the process will be easier for prisoners to get marketable qualifications, and it’s also cost effective for Corrections.”
Research shows that securing a job on release from prison helps with prisoners’ successful reintegration into society and therefore contributes to reducing re-offending.
Ken agrees; “Of course we lose touch with them when they leave prison, but I hear good stories about a lot of them. For example, my last number one cook is now doing the catering for a back-packers down south.”
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ISSN 1178-8453