Great news for term 2, 2016!
EVTU Develops new Professional Development training for education staff
The Education and Vocational Training Unit introduced a new PD course to 35 prison educators on July 14th at the Academy. The EVTU developed course provides staff with information on correctional education history, theory and practices. The course was developed to address a long time need in the profession in Australia, as most prison teachers ‘fall into’ working in prison from other educational sectors. This situation means unlike other disciplines, prison educators do not have a shared experience and training with others in their field. This ‘disconnect’ can enhance feelings of isolation and confusion, so it is important that prison educators know more about their field in order to better understand and identify with it.
A course of this kind, developed and provided by professional correctional teachers in Australia, is new and so it is being reviewed and ‘fine- tuned’ so, it can eventually be offered to both regional staff in WA - a filmed version is currently being developed, and shared with fellow prison educators in other jurisdictions.
Ray Chavez, who developed the training, mentioned that while the current focus on correctional education is on how it can increase both employability and wages of post release prisoners to reduce recidivism there are other important outcomes which should not be overlooked. Research shows educational attainment of a prisoner can positively impact on the educational achievements of their children and this in turn, can help stem the increase in intergenerational crime. With most prisoners coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and communities, an increase in educational attainment can also help address anti-social behaviour and positively impact their re-entry community. The focus on anti-social behaviour is being addressed by EVTU developed emotional intelligence training for prisoners, which aims to improve interpersonal communication and self-awareness of prisoners.
Our People Awards: EVTU Staff Recognition in the 2015-2016 Financial Year
EVTU initiatives were again well represented at the Department’s Our People Awards. While only winning in the Working with Female Offenders category this year, the other nominated initiatives were also excellent projects or programs. A number of the non-winners were previously recognised in other ‘high profile’ award ceremonies or prominent events (for example showcased at the G20 Economic Summit, Keys For Life, State Training Excellence Awards,…) All in all, a great year and congratulation to all!
The Bandyup Training and Industries team lead by Angela Graham who is based at Warminda, worked with Bandyup Education Centre staff and Prison Administration to develop a plan for training and actual work experience in several areas across the prison.
The women at Bandyup who were trained in Barista now work and serve 100’s of coffees a week to prison visitors.
The dog grooming course sees Departmental staff pets coming into the prison for grooming for a small fee, giving the women experience of working with different kind of dogs and replicating work on the outside.
Hairdressing, waxing and make up are also being delivered and clustered with micro business, so the women will be set up not only with real life working skills but also the knowledge of how to work for themselves. This has caused a shift in the mindset of the women – training isn’t just for trainings sake - it’s to develop and maintain skills they can use upon release.
Unit Enrolments and Number of Prisons with Higher Education Students Breaks Records
The Tertiary Studies Assessment Committee which assesses prisoner application for higher education, met in June and the meeting resulted in 101 prisoners being assessed, and prisoners enrolled in 164 units of study at 11 individual prisons. The total number of prisoner unit enrolments and the number of prisons participating in the higher education process set new records.
Of note this semester, is that there has been an increase in enrolments in programs with two important partners of the EVTU, both who consistently seek to increase higher education enrolments among prisoners. Curtin University, in its JETA Associate of Arts program, which was designed and developed to assist prisoners and is entering its 21st year of operation, and the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), which consistently has the largest number of prisoner students in Australia, and is the most active advocate in the university sector for increased IT access for prisoners.
The partnership with USQ aims to achieve two important goals for prisoner education, to take digital technologies that don’t require internet access into correctional education centres so as to enable prisoners to enrol in pre-tertiary and undergraduate programs, and to remove barriers to study for students from low-socio-economic status backgrounds throughout Australia. USQ combined with EVTU to develop a prison specific tertiary preparation program (TPP) which includes all the required TPP units but also includes the EVTU developed Standing On Solid Ground course, which is an emotional intelligence unit designed to assist prisoner intra and interpersonal communication.