PPrison instructors train prison inmates to help them gain skills for employment after their release. They may train prisoners in a variety of trades ranging from construction skills such as plumbing and bricklaying to creative skills like tailoring and woodwork.

There are two different types of prison officer:

• prison officer instructors - uniformed prison officers with particular skills and qualifications which they use to train inmates
• instructional officers - qualified civilians who are employed to train inmates and run work programmes.

During their sentence, prisoners are encouraged to work towards qualifications such as NVQs/SVQs and City and Guilds qualifications. Prisons also run education programmes to encourage inmates to improve their literacy, numeracy and life skills.

Some prisons have commercial enterprises which provide goods and services within the prison or outside, such as:

• farm produce
• data entry services
• word processing services.

In some prisons these are run by private companies, who are on contract to the prison service and employ the instructors or trainers.

Hours and Environment

Instructors generally work a 37 hour, five day week. Location varies according to the subject being taught. It may be indoors in small factories, workshops or classrooms, or outdoors, for example if involved in farming or horticulture.

As instructors are working in a prison environment, they must be safety and security conscious at all times, both for their welfare and the welfare of inmates.

Skills and Interests

To be a prison instructor, you should:

• be skilled in and enthusiastic about your specialist trade
• be able to communicate clearly and have strong training skills
• be interested in people, able to build good relationships and gain the trust of inmates
• be able to motivate prisoners and help them make the most of their training opportunities
• be able to work closely with prisoners whilst keeping some emotional detachment
• be capable of managing small groups of people
• have patience and a sense of humour
• have good judgement to assess potentially difficult situations
• be able to apply safe working practices.

Entry

To become a prison officer instructor you will need to meet all the criteria to become a prison officer. These include nationality, security, medical and fitness requirements. Please see the profile on Prison Officer for details. 

To be an instructional officer you are likely to need:

• at least NVQ 3 or equivalent in your trade
• experience in your trade 
• instructional, supervisory or teaching experience
• knowledge of NVQ/SVQs where this is relevant.

For some posts you may need qualifications in one of the following:

• further education teaching
• literacy/numeracy teaching
• NVQ/SVQ assessing.

For further information on this, please see the profiles for Lecturer: Further Education and NVQ/SVQ Assessor/Verifier.

Training

You will usually begin your training with a one-week induction course at the prison where you will be an instructor. You will then do four weeks industrial training with experienced training instructors. 

You will be encouraged to gain additional skills and qualifications, such as an NVQ/SVQ in training and development or a further education teaching qualification. Continuing professional development (CPD) schemes are also available.

Please see HM Prison Service website (or the Scottish Prison Service if you plan to work in Scotland) for further details of training to become a prison instructor or an instructional officer. There are links to both websites in Further Information.

Opportunities

In England and Wales, there are approximately 1,000 civilian instructors. This is likely to increase as the prison population is rising.

Instructors are generally recruited as grade 1 instructional officers and may be promoted to higher instructional officer. Some may move up to managing a training centre or unit, or working in a head office.

There has recently been quite a lot of growth  in the use of private companies in prison work.

Annual Income

Figures are intended as a guideline only.

Prison officer instructors are paid as prison officers, starting at around £17,744 rising to around £26,858 a year.
Instructional officers are likely to earn between £17,000 and £28,000 a year. 

Civilian instructors may work on a freelance basis and may be paid an hourly rate.

Further information

Calton House
5 Redheughs Rigg
Edinburgh
EH12 9HW
Tel: 0131 244 8745 9 Riverside Court
Don Road
Sheffield
S9 2TJ Recruitment Section
Cleland House
Page Street
London
SW1P 4LN Dundonald House
Upper Newtownards Road
Belfast
BT4 3SU
Tel: 028 9052 5065