Education and training

All prisoners have a meeting with a member of our prison education department within 2 weeks of being received into prison. This is to introduce them to the facilities available at the prison and to find out about their education and work background, highlighting which subjects would be beneficial to study.

All new prisoners are encouraged to take literacy and numeracy tests, where appropriate to do so. These assessments assist to establish a prisoners ability.

All convicted prisoners have to work whilst remand prisoners are encouraged to undertake purposeful activity. Initial work placements depend on the length of sentence, supervision level, previous experience and personal development. 

The education team who are employed by the Isle of Man College. The education classes are not comparable with school, so even prisoners who found learning difficult in the past can find a way to enjoy it through the encouragement provided by the education staff. The prison has a detailed brochure outlining the type of courses available.  These include English, maths and numeracy, information technology, creative skills (art/craft, cookery), employability and life skills. All prisoners work individually on their own target areas.

In March 2010, prisoners commenced horticulture studies. During the first season around 70 vegetable beds were dug in the prison grounds with the underlying aim of making the prison self sufficient in staple crops such as potatoes, carrots, beetroot, onions, garlic and turnips. Some of the produce is used in the prison kitchen and the rest in the education department cookery class.

Prisoners can work towards a City & Guilds qualification.

Vocational qualifications are available in Horticulture, Hospitality, Catering and IT. Exams are available at all levels in functional skills, with GCSE AS and A2 in English and Maths. Prisoners can study distance learning courses (by post) providing they can raise the money to pay for the course.