Bristol: Ex-offenders to get work placements with new scheme

Ex-offenders are set to be offered work placements after a university secured funding for a new scheme.

University of the West of England (UWE) has received a City and Guilds Foundation grant and will be partnering with Project ReMake.

It is hoped 20 participants will join the first cohort next month, with another two groups joining in January and May 2024.

Ex-offender Omar Mentesh, 41, said a similar scheme "transformed" his life.

Project ReMake aims to provide entrepreneurial skills and paid work placements along with making connections with business leaders.

The City and Guilds Foundation has awarded UWE £67,000 to provide the course for one evening a week over eight weeks, with participants offered one-to-one business mentoring.

Graduates will then be offered a 12-week paid work placement at business outsourcing firm Capita.

Since it was first offered at two London universities three years ago, 93 people have graduated who are currently not known to have reoffended.

Mr Mentesh is now a peer mentor at ReMake and said he "loves what they are bringing forward" for the UWE project, which has also been rolled out to the University of Bradford.

He has been in prison several times since he was 15 and was most recently released from prison in 2017 after serving four years of an eight year term for robbery.

Following his release he went onto university in 2018 to complete a business degree, but struggled to gain employment because of his criminal record.

"I kept on hitting a brick wall," he said.

Mr Mentesh then came across the project and completed the programme in 2022 at Queen Mary University.

"Out of 10 it's a 10, honestly its transformed my life," he said.

"I realised coming out of university just having a degree wasn't enough, I needed a platform and that's what ReMake gave me."

Mr Mentesh is now a social value manager with Capita thanks to the programme.

Dr Jenna Pandeli, associate professor in organisation studies at UWE, secured the funding for the course with colleague Lynda Williams.

She audited the programme at Queen Mary which, along with King's College University, has been working with ReMake since 2020.

She said: "My research has shown that meaningful employment and self-efficacy have a huge impact on reoffending, both of which are key components of Project ReMake.

"We need to help [ex-offenders] adjust to life after prison, provide support with education and employment so that a prison sentence doesn't do irreversible damage.

"Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also makes economic sense if it also leads to a reduction in reoffending."

Judge Kameel Khan, who founded the project, said he has ambitions to roll out the programme across the UK.

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