Ex-prisoners helped back to workplace

Aug 8 2008 by William Green, The Journal

FORMER prisoners are being helped back into work under a groundbreaking project in the North East yesterday praised by the Government.

The scheme is giving inmates at Durham Prison pre-release training followed by work experience in the Marriott Hotel chain, with a view to permanent employment with the company or other employers.

Marriott Hotels has joined forces with Jobcentre Plus and other agencies to develop the Offender Routeway programme.

North East firms along with the Prison and Probation Services and education chiefs are also lending their support and expertise to the project.

And Employment Minister Stephen Timms yesterday praised the programme after visiting the Marriott Gosforth Park Hotel to hear how the scheme is working.

He said: “This project is an excellent example of how we can work with employers and other agencies to help people who need a second opportunity to fulfil their potential.

“We want to remove obstacles to learning and skills for people trapped within the benefits system, while giving employers a bigger role in directing skills budgets.”

He added that local employment partnerships such as the one with Marriott Hotels would help more than 6,000 people in the North East into work by next March.

Alan Tallentire, Governor of Durham Prison, said: “One of the greatest difficulties of prisoners reintegrating into society is finding and settling into a job.

“This Marriott scheme is excellent as it allows prisoners not only to experience work but employers to experience the good work they can do.”

Mr Timms’s visit comes after Marriott Hotels made a national commitment to local employment partnerships, offering work trials and pre-employment training, in February this year.

The company currently operates 55 hotels across the UK and Ireland, employing 10,000 people.