On-job training letting criminals make changes
He’s 26 and has just done five months of home detention, but things are looking up.
The Hamilton man, who can’t be identified, is the latest success story from a new pilot scheme between the Department of Corrections and Fairview Motors in Hamilton.
The programme began in February between Fairview Educational Service (FEDS) and Corrections to provide an NCEA level two certificate in the automotive industry.
The man was convicted for assault in 2017 and sentenced to five months of home detention.
An ankle bracelet meant he couldn’t continue with the building company he had been working for at the time of the offence.
But the opportunity to gain an automotive certificate has sent him in a new direction.
‘‘Usually I’m the one taking cars to the garage – can you fix this, please? Now people are bringing stuff to me and I am the one fixing it. So it’s given me a really valuable skill,’’ he said.
On Saturday, he started a fulltime job as an oil changer. He plans to continue his studies next year and eventually become a mechanic.
The course has given him more than a new occupation.
‘‘Even just turning up was the hard part in the beginning. But now it has set me up for work quite well. It has actually improved my life in a lot of facets, not just being more hands-on with cars. It’s given me a focus and now I will be a provider again.’’
The year-long pilot programme does have entrance criteria. It is for offenders serving sentences and orders in the community.
FEDS director Justin Horrigan had seen the positive effect his programme had on prisoners in Spring Hill last year and thought it could work outside the wire as well.