Second chances: Ex-offenders could help solve recruitment crisis
“I always wanted to be a drug dealer. Getting a job would have been strange to me,” Liam Meredith, an ex-offender who now runs his own catering business, says.
Many young men like Meredith struggle to break a cycle of offending even after they leave prison, due to tumultuous home lives.
For men like Meredith, working with the Key4Life charity represents one of the first times they feel like they have an opportunity to “reinvent” themselves.
Key4Life helps prisoners and former offenders with the transition to employment with work tasters and CV-writing workshops. It was founded by Eva Hamilton, in the wake of the 2011 London riots.
”A lot of people have never really had the experience of working legally. They have great strengths and lots of experience with running illegal businesses like drug dealing, but not how it is to work in the mainstream world of work,” she tells CityA.M.
Only 17 per cent of ex-offenders manage to get a job within a year of release and for those who try, there are difficulties.
“There’s a stigma attached to employing someone with an offending background,” Meredith says. “Being a CEO myself now, seeing [an applicant] had a criminal record would raise a few concerns. I need to look into it myself now so I can respect it. But if corporations are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem.”
After release from prison in 2017, Meredith spent three years at Yeo Valley and says he “would bleed yoghurt now if I cut my finger.”
For cycling specialist Halfords, the level of retention of graduates from its prison academy is higher than the level of retention of its average employed sales floor workers.
“The fact you are giving someone a chance, [ex-offenders] are aware of that and will impress you and bend over backwards,” Meredith says.
Meredith now runs his own burger-van business, Execo Flavours. “All the skills I had in my old life were transferable,” he explains.
Another ex-offender who feels he has qualities that set him apart from the rest of the crowd is Sham. He is currently an apprentice site manager at St James’ development in White City.
“I felt like I wasted a lot of time in my teens so I went back to what my mum was saying to me as a child,” he says. “She said we need a builder. In Somali culture, we consider the family a micro economy and we should all have a doctor, accountant, builder.
“The UK [building sector] is very strict with rules and regulations so there is no better place to learn.”
“A lot of ex-offenders have what it takes to go to the top,” Sham says.
Before working with the charity, Sham says he “never really looked forward” and would “dig myself a deeper hole,” due to karma. “I would expect something to come and bite me later on. So I was thinking, what’s the point of changing?”
He adds: “Key4Life practically showed me that it’s up to me. You don’t really see how much of your life is in your control, because so much of it is systematic. They opened my eyes into how much power I have for myself.”
In his studies, Sham has been learning about the history of social housing in London and hopes to help improve housing conditions for the next generation.
As well as helping change ex-offenders’ mindsets to their futures, Hamilton is also seeking to “challenge corporate Britain” to give those with a criminal record a second chance.
“You tend to get a guy who is bright, maybe in the past has gone to university but he dropped out and took a shortcut as he thought he could make lots of money with drug dealing.”
“They see the City as a big challenge for them, many of them have fitted in well and enjoyed it,” she adds.
One Square Mile firm eyeing opportunities with working ex-offenders is Willis Towers Watson.
The firm would like to take on ex-offenders as apprentices and has been involved in offering work tasters through Key4Life.
“Getting somebody out of that cocoon that has been created because of their situation can be exceptionally rewarding,” Fredrik Motzfeldt, the firm’s GB industry leader, technology, media and telecommunications, tells CityA.M.
However, employers should not think about an ex-offender as “your standard applicant,” says Motzfeldt, with buddy systems needed for support.
Charities like Key4Life are keen to see the government increase education and training opportunities for those behind bars – as well as increasing the £46 given to individuals when they’re released.
“If ex-offenders don’t have opportunities they turn back to crime again,” Hamilton adds. “They do need a supportive structure in place. The government needs to invest money so companies don’t have a headache asking people where they are.”
The government has recently unveiled plans to change the law so that prisoners at English open prisons will be able to apply for apprenticeships in vital industries, including hospitality and construction.
For industries who haemorrhaged workers amid Covid and Brexit, such as hospitality and construction, the opportunity to work with ex-offenders is increasingly important.
Could ex-offenders be a key part of solving Britain’s talent crunch? “There’s a talent source there,” Motzfeldt said. “There’s so many unfulfilled jobs that companies should look at different sources of talent.”
Big names such as Greggs, The Berkeley Group and Tesco, have tried to make their recruitment process more inclusive to those with a criminal record.
When Meredith left prison, he had no bank account, ID, or self-belief. “I created a foundation for my life,” in the years that followed, with the help of his employer and charity support, he explained. “I could reinvent myself.”