Our Programme
We know how important it is for prisoners to be able to find secure employment on release. This protective factor supports their mental, social and financial wellbeing, and is a key driver in reducing re-offending.
Programme Aims
Our aim is to ensure YCG Citizens™ are prepared for the world of work; equipping them with skills, competencies, and experience for their chosen career. This enables them to secure meaningful employment on release.
We deliver this training through the YCG Academy Programme™, working with offenders whilst in custody and on release to create a personalised career pathway.
How it works
The YCG Pathways Programme™ is centred on the needs of our sponsoring employers and YCG Citizens™, ensuring we can support them to work and grow together.
Our dedicated team of education professionals engage collaboratively with sponsoring employers to inform our curriculum design. This ensures that YCG Citizens™ develop the skills and core competencies which will provide real opportunities for work, apprenticeships and training on release.
The YCG Pathways Programme™ provides an invaluable resource to sponsoring employers, enabling them to meet their recruitment needs at scale and plan for future growth.
YCG Citizens™
All prospective YCG Citizens™ have been identified through a rigorous selection and recruitment process. This ensures they demonstrate a commitment to engage in their sentence planning and effective reintegration.
Our programmes are underpinned by YCG Caseworkers within participating establishments. They have been trained in all aspects of prison law, providing all stakeholders with up to date and accurate information, assisting applications on all aspects of sentence planning and progression; assisting with complaints; and working with our justice partners and others, such as the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the Prison Reform Trust, in ensuring access to justice; adoption of best practice; and policy submissions for consideration by the MOJ Deregulation and Operational Policy Team.
We work closely with Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Services (HMPPS) to ensure all YCG Citizens™ have been thoroughly vetted and approved for work.
Forum Contributors
Programme Testimonial
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has had the pleasure of working in partnership with YCG for the last four years. YCG has acted as a much valued ‘bridge’ between the CCRC Casework staff – whose job is to investigate suspected miscarriage of justice – and people in prison who may need the CCRC’s help. It can be extremely difficult for the CCRC to reach out to people in custody who may need our assistance. YCG has provided a unique and invaluable service in this respect; by providing the CCRC with the opportunity to run prison surgeries at HMP Oakwood and HMP Leyhill – which are then arranged and hosted by YCG. They also signpost people in prison to the CCRC application process and provide advice to people in custody about how and when to make an effective application. For these services we are, and will continue to be, grateful.
YCG also act as much valued consultants to the CCRC. We have sought their advice and expertise on the wording of some of our formal policies, to make sure they are accessible for vulnerable groups of people in custody. YCG have also advised on our new website and literature for applicants, advising on the internal research we conduct to improve our service to all potential applicants. YCG are now members of the CCRC’s Stakeholder Forum and provide a unique and much appreciated perspective on the needs of the prison population within this forum.
The CCRC look forward to working more with YCG in the future. Together we can make sure we are doing all we can to reach out to those hard-to-reach groups of people who may need our help.