City & Guilds wins major MoJ Prison Education Contract

At City & Guilds we are proud that for almost 150 years we have collaborated with people, organisations, and economies to help them identify and develop the skills they need to thrive. We understand the life changing link between skills development, social mobility, prosperity, and success so everything we do focuses on developing and delivering high-quality training, qualifications and credentials that lead to jobs and meet the changing needs of industry.

29 October 2024

We are delighted to share that City & Guilds have successfully secured a contract with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to deliver qualifications in prisons in England for the next seven years, starting in October 2025. This contract covers Maths & English, Hospitality, Engineering, and Transport, with the potential to expand to additional qualifications across Construction, Building Services Engineering (BSE), ESOL, and more. 

When it comes to prisoners, the relationship between high quality skills training, access to employment opportunities, and community integration is obvious. We know nearly half of the prison population (47%) lacks any qualifications indicating a significant gap in job readiness.

Reoffending costs the UK approximately £18bn every year, and engagement with education and training has been shown to reduce reoffending considerably.  Indeed, a report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in 2020 showed that the one-year reoffending rate among prison learners was 34%, compared to 43% for those who did not engage in any form of learning.

This contract builds on our long history of work supporting prisoners upskill, building on our previous MoJ contracts, as well as the work of the City & Guilds Foundation who launched The Future Skills Commission for Prisons back in 2019, backed by a £1 million Big Ideas Fund.  The Fund works with UK charities, prison governors and local innovators to deliver transformative approaches to the delivery of skills both in and after prison. The City & Guilds 2024 Impact Report found that 587 Prisoners & ex-offenders have been supported through Big Idea Fund with vocational skills training.