26 August
Prisoners at Rimutaka Prison have increased opportunity to get hands on training with the opening of a new Trade and Technical Training workshop last week.
Prisoners often have limited employment skills, and the new workshop will give them the opportunity to gain a 64 Credit, Level 2 National Certificate in Motor Industry specialising in Small Motors – with each course running for 17 weeks.
“The workshop complements the new Brick and Block Laying workshop, with both operations run by WelTec instructors with support from Corrections staff,” says Corrections Inmate Employment National Training Manager Saen O’Brien.
“The new facility housing the Brick and Block Laying and Small Motors training workshops has been built to ensure we have enough training opportunities for the prisoners at Rimutaka. We’re anticipating opening further workshops later this year, so opportunities for prisoners to gain valuable employment skills and experience will only increase.
“We’ve found that the training we offer doesn’t only benefit prisoners – the instructors we’re getting on board from WelTec have been learning a lot themselves,” says Saen. “The WelTec instructors are often wary of working in the prison environment – but they soon appreciate that their initial perceptions of what working in a prison would be like have really been challenged by the motivation and enthusiasm of the prisoners involved. Invariably the WelTec staff have found teaching in this environment a very rewarding experience.
“It is a great opportunity for these prisoners to experience training for the first time and learn valuable new skills. They can see how the training can be applied in their lives outside of prison - whether it will be fixing their own motors, or going for employment upon release. This really helps them think about getting into a more stable, crime free life upon release.
“The increased training capacity at Rimutaka Prison will see an increase in the number of places available to prisoners from 48 to 78. The more we can get prisoners involved in training and seeing a future for themselves outside of crime, the more it will help us fulfill our goal of getting prisoners to find sustainable employment on release, reduce their risk of re-offending and ultimately make our communities safer.”
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