Tag Archives: Journey

Case Study about Implementation and delivery of the Test Beds Virtual Campus

Executive summary: This paper presents a case study of the Virtual Campus (VC). The study was commissioned by BIS and conducted by the National Centre for Social Research. Drawing upon secondary analysis of Test Beds evaluation data and recent interviews with the VC project team, this paper covers implementation, delivery and outcomes. The VC is an ICT platform that allows ETE providers and offender-learners’ access to training materials to support release and employment, including secure access to websites. The key benefits of the VC discussed by staff were its ability to link work in custody to ETE mainstream delivery systems and streamline and modernise ETE provision. In doing so, it was envisaged that offender-learners would engage better with their ETE journey.

Introduction: In the 2005 Green Paper, Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment the Government’s vision for tackling poor skills and high levels of unemployment among offenders was outlined for consultation. The subsequent Next Steps document was developed to address how the Green Paper vision would be realised, with the ultimate goal of reducing re-offending. Next Steps outlined three priority areas for action. First, there was a drive to engage employers through the Reducing Re-offending Corporate Alliance by designing and implementing new models of training and preparation for employment. A second priority was to build on the Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) by developing a campus model, focussing on employers’ needs. Using an employability contract or compact with offenders as part of their sentence plan formed part of the vision for the campus model. Keep reading…