We are proud to have launched the first in-prison employability training programme aimed at building the workplace skills prisoners need to make them job-ready on the day of release. Our three-week employment and business course has been piloted at HMP Styal, a women’s prison near Manchester, in partnership with prison education and training provider Novus.

The training is aimed at providing skills that will be useful for a broad range of employers. At the end of the programme, trainees are guaranteed an interview with Virgin Trains as well as being taken through a mock interview in preparation for the real thing.

The latest group of trainees graduated on 5^th October and of the 16 trainees on the first two courses, nearly half have been offered permanent positions.

We have been proactively recruiting those with convictions for five years and we currently employ more than 30 people who were recruited directly from prison. We are due to roll out the programme at other prisons along our West Coast route over the next year.