30 June 2010
Twenty prisoners have recently graduated from painting and automotive courses at Rimutaka Prison.
The courses are provided by Department of Corrections through Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) which runs the courses in association with Weltec.
The painting course teaches prisoners professional techniques covering scaffolding, industrial coating, spray painting, and commercial and residential painting and decorating.
The painting course constitutes the first half of a painting apprenticeship and provides the basis for entry to trade or further training in the painting industry. Trainees learn from experienced Weltec painting instructors in a realistic training environment.
Prisoners gained valuable workplace experience during the painting course through Hawkins Construction who contracted CIE to help finish and paint two new workshops and walkways at Rimutaka Prison.
Hawkins Construction found the team “professional and motivated” and is seeking their services again to paint the distribution and print workshops currently under construction at the prison.
“The painting courses taught by Weltec have been so successful that CIE has opened two new workshops in Spring Hill Corrections Facility and Northland Region Correction Facility to deliver the same course at those facilities,” said Saen O’Brien the National Prisoner Training Manager.
“The standard of work is just outstanding,” said Weltec painting instructor Richard Davies. “Industry is looking for these skills and I want to congratulate the students and let you know that you should be very proud of your work,” he said.
“I’m very proud of every student, I’d be happy to employ you and want you to know that because of the work I’ve seen you produce over the last seventeen weeks that I am a positive advocate of your work.”
Top painting graduate Mark* says that the benefit to prisoners from these courses is multifaceted: “prisoners can gain new opportunities, contacts, trade apprenticeships, qualifications and hope. We have been given opportunities that we haven’t had before – in prison this gives us hope and it gives us practical skills with qualifications before we get out.”
“My goal now when I get out is to get an apprenticeship and through my instructor Richard to talk to people about work; it’s great that we have contacts that can help us find work on release.”
Automotive trades is a seventeen week course at Rimutaka Prison provided by Weltec in partnership with CIE. Prisoners start learning with basic metal work, then begin work on two stroke lawnmower motors and work their way up to four stroke engines, then mounted car engines and electrical and fuel systems.
The courses have given prisoners a new appreciation of the power of learning and knowledge: “In here the prisoners on these courses get a thirst for knowledge – any books that we get, get passed around between guys outside of class and we really pore over the pages studying everything we can,” says Automotive graduate Peter*.
The course has also helped individual prisoners overcome personal development problems: “One prisoner in particular has a very, very bad learning disability and a very truncated education. At the start he doubted everything he did, but at the end of the course he said 'there’s no reason why I can’t do this when I get out'," says Automotive Weltec instructor Mark Williams.
“Once he started the automotive classes he started working very hard, and pretty soon he was doing complex maths very quickly. He started doing calculations that no one else in any of the other courses has done – he’d never even driven a car; I’ve never met anyone on these courses who could work out maths so quickly.”
“More than that though is the fact that he’s shown a willingness to think outside of the square, outside of class, about complex ideas and maths and this has taken him to new levels of learning and understanding that he’s not reached before; seeing that sort of transition is why I started teaching,” says Mr Williams.
* Not their real name
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