Opportunity For Change is a community interest company that offers drug-free prisoners paid work opportunities within the construction industry.

Opportunity For Change offers training to prisoners nearing the end of their sentence which enables offenders to receive recognised accredited qualifications within the construction industry enabling them to secure full-time work upon release from prison.

Everyone has the ability to change and move on and our organisation recognises that gaining skills and recognised qualifications will be invaluable to prisoners reaching the end of their sentences. Ex-offenders will be able to secure jobs that will enable them to have financial independence and offer an alternative to career criminality.

Currently, there is an acute shortage of training programmes for suitable male and female prisoners nearing the end of their sentence. Not surprisingly the reoffending rates are extremely high. 25 years ago the prison population was 44,000. Today it is 84,000.

In a survey, 97% of Prisoners said they wanted to stop offending. When asked what would be important in stopping them 68% said a job and 60% said a place to live. Prisoners who have a job to go to are less likely to re-offend, and “only 1 in 10,000 people released on temporary license in employment go on to commit a serious crime”.  

Currently Construction Recruitment agencies are experiencing great difficulty in supplying sufficient numbers of low skilled workers and labourers to the trade.

8% of Prisoners are Unemployed before being put in custody which backs up the fact that those in full time work are less likely to offend and reoffend.

At the moment offenders and ex-offenders are not given the tools or guidance they need in order to move forward with their life.

Offenders are leaving prison without any training or qualifications that will help them to secure full-time work. This then leads them to commit further crime.  A lot of the time offenders believe there is no other option available to them than to continue their life of crime.  We show them there is.

Opportunity for Change operates with a set of core values that include trust, respect and the belief that those who are disadvantaged and wish to make a change should be given a chance to move on with their lives. We build on the proven statistics that a job and income are key ingredients to enable those leaving prison to cope with daily life and prevent re-offending. Opportunity For Change aims to restore hope and transform the lives of ex-offenders.

Construction experience is not required to join the training programmes but prisoners must be drug free and coming to the end of their sentence. Ex-offenders should be motivated to want to learn new skills with a view to moving into a workplace setting and gaining paid employment.

Our staff are highly experienced in working with people from custodial backgrounds. Our team have a spectrum of skills and links with training providers and construction recruitment companies that enable them to effectively support ex-offenders at every stage of their journey.