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<p>Apprenticeships are paid jobs which include high-quality on-the-job and off-the-job
training. All apprentices must hold a contract of employment, which means they are
not currently available to prisoners.</p><p>The government recognises how important
it is that those in custody are given the support, training, and routes into employment
that best meets the needs of individuals, and their future employers. The department’s
apprenticeship programme is supporting this by working with the Department for Work
and Pensions, Youth Offending teams and local employers, to consider pilot schemes
which promote and encourage apprenticeship and traineeship opportunities to ex-offenders
and those at risk of offending aged 16-24.</p><p>The Ministry of Justice also supports
a wider range of provision to support prisoners into employment on release and governors
can now commission specific provision aimed at meeting the needs of their prisoners
and local labour markets. This includes the New Futures Network, created in 2018 to
broker partnerships between prisons and employers, helping businesses fill skills
gaps and prisoners to find employment on release. Information, advice and guidance
services are also available in prisons to help prisoners identify career aims and
work towards achieving these.</p><p>The Department for Education and the Ministry
of Justice are at the early stages of exploring the potential costs and benefits of
the various options for a potential future prison apprenticeships programme to complement
existing schemes. We would expect that a prison apprenticeship programme will need
to use the same standards and frameworks as all apprenticeships.</p><p>At this time,
we have not made any estimates of the time required to develop models of delivery
for prison apprenticeships. We will consider any discussions with employers and Cabinet
colleagues once we have first established the practicalities and value of a potential
prison apprenticeship programme.</p>
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