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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:58 am
Time: 12:58 am
Results for ex-offenders employment (canada)
1 results foundAuthor: Didenko, Eugenia Title: Evaluation Report: National Employability Skills Program Summary: Employment is a prevalent and well-documented need among federal offenders (Brews, Luong & Nafekh, 2010; Correctional Service of Canada Review Panel, 2007; Delveaux, Blanchette, & Wickette, 2005; Gillis, 2000; Gillis & Andrews, 2005; Taylor et al., 2008; Trevethan & Rastin, 2003). As one part of the Correctional Service of Canada’s (CSC) employment continuum aimed at providing offenders with employment support from intake to post-release, the National Employability Skills Program (NESP) offers training in the generic, transferable skills necessary to secure and maintain employment in the community. NESP is estimated to have an annual budget of approximately $442,667. The present evaluation was conducted to examine the relevance, implementation, success, and cost-effectiveness of the program. The evaluation found that the employability skills targeted by NESP had consistently been identified as relevant and important for employers across occupational sectors, and that the program was consistent with government-wide and correctional priorities. Since the program’s inception, NESP was delivered to incarcerated offenders across CSC regions by trained facilitators who reported to have performed program activities in accordance with program guidelines. The majority of NESP participants were awarded employability skills certificates from The Conference Board of Canada and improvements in offenders’ employability skills were noted by program facilitators, work supervisors and program participants themselves. Importantly, skill improvements were observed in all twelve employability skills targeted by the program. Overall, NESP participants were as likely as a comparison group to find employment in the community, although women participants were more likely to gain employment than women participants in the comparison group. In addition, participation in NESP was associated with a reduced likelihood of any first return to custody and a first return for new offence. When the treatment effect of the program was examined separately for different offender subgroups, these results only held true for male participants. Several program design and implementation issues appeared to have contributed to the limited treatment effect on examined community correctional outcomes. For example, although participants were expected to apply the employability skills they acquired through the program in their immediate work environment, some institutional work assignments did not appear to have provided such opportunity. Also, many work supervisors reported that they were not familiar with NESP and did not consistently perform program activities. Program facilitators, on the other hand, identified the need to revise the curriculum content and teaching methods to be more applicable to the offender population and the types of jobs they would likely obtain upon release, and to foster hands-on learning in the classroom. It is worth acknowledging that the scope of twelve employability skills taught as part of the NESP curriculum was deemed appropriate given the review of the literature and feedback received by program stakeholders. Additional relevant employability skills, such as computer skills, were also identified as important for meeting the needs of employers. NESP has been mostly delivered to offenders with identified employment needs. Specifically, 77% of all program participants had their employment needs assessed as some or considerable at intake to federal custody and, when the Quebec Region was excluded from this analysis due to the apparent differences in assessment practices, the proportion of offenders with some or considerable employment need increased to 89%. Furthermore, NESP may not be accessible by all offenders who may be in need of employability skills development. For instance, despite an identified employment need, if an offender did not have an institutional work assignment, he or she would not be eligible to participate in or access NESP services. Overall, NESP participants tended to have higher levels of motivation and reintegration potential and lower levels of overall need and overall risk compared to the general incarcerated offender population. NESP was designed to improve participants’ ability to acquire and maintain employment in the community; however, there was no formal linkage between NESP and employment services and opportunities in the community. Program stakeholders indicated that enhanced linkage to community employment opportunities would be beneficial to NESP participants. Finally, cost-effectiveness of the program could not be examined as part of the evaluation due to a lack of accurate and reliable financial data. In summary, the evaluation found that participation in NESP was associated with significant improvements in program participants’ employability skills levels. Positive treatment effect was also observed on some community correctional outcomes, such as job attainment and decreased rates of return to federal custody, albeit not for all offender groups. Further, the evaluation identified issues related to the design and delivery of NESP, as well as program governance and financial management. To address identified program issues and thus to enhance offenders’ outcomes, this evaluation report makes several recommendations, focusing specifically on the design and delivery of NESP. The implementation of the recommended changes should, however, be contingent upon full examination of the existing comparable employability programs and services offered across the regions. Details: Ottawa: Correctional Servivce Canada, 2010. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: File 394-2-83: Accessed February 27, 2013 at: http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/pa/ev-nesp-394-2-83/nesp-394-2-83-eng.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Canada URL: http://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/text/pa/ev-nesp-394-2-83/nesp-394-2-83-eng.pdf Shelf Number: 127734 Keywords: Ex-Offenders Employment (Canada)Vocational Education and Training |