Releasing potential
David Oliver is as aware as anyone in the industry of the skills and manpower shortage in the kitchen. He hasn't got the complete answer to the recruitment problem, but he has taken charge of the Prison Service chef training scheme called Custody to Work in the 136 prisons in England and Wales.
He is replacing ad hoc, prison-by-prison individual schemes of varying quality with a co-ordinated national training plan. Graduates of the scheme are leaving prison with NVQ level 2 food hygiene and food handling certificates and eager to find work in the catering industry.
The situation currently is that ex-offenders often have only minimal kitchen training, they have no recognised certification, and the help they are given in finding a job may be little more than that provided by the local JobCentre. As the Prison Service's national basic skills and NVQco-ordinator, Oliver is hoping hotel, restaurant and pub chains along with all the sections of food service, from commercial contractor to in-house caterer, will consider solving their staff shortages by speaking to him.
Sodexho, through its Ministry of Defence (MoD) catering division, is the first big name to begin working with Oliver and his scheme, but he needs more. He says potential employers of ex-offenders should not be concerned with lofty, altruistic ideals and social responsibility, but the practical staffing needs of their business.
The Custody to Work programme was set up by the Prison Service after acknowledging that the two biggest reasons for ex-prisoners reoffending were lack of work skills and no job, which lead within days to housing problems and the temptation to get some money by the very means that got the prisoner "banged up" in the first place.
Oliver explains what is happening: "We are training people to the same academic level as a catering college. The difference with our training scheme is that it is real time and real cooking. Catering colleges offer good training, but the difference with our scheme is that it is not classroom training - it's live."
From the day prisoners enrol on the NVQ programme they are cooking not for each other and the trainer, says Oliver, but for other inmates - for whom meal times are a focal point of their day; there is often not much more to look forward to.
Strangeways in Manchester is one of the biggest prisons in Britain. It houses up to 1,250 male prisoners. As with other prisons running the Custody to Work programme, there are NVQ training schemes for a range of craft skills in addition to catering - from building to gardening.
What makes the catering NVQ course different from all the others, says Oliver, is the pressure under which the cheffing trainees have to work. "If you are on a gardening course, if you don't plant that tree in the morning, you can do it in the afternoon. Or you can plant it tomorrow; it doesn't matter. Those on the kitchen training course have to work to deadlines. Lunch has to be delivered by 11.45am with no excuses. They are learning the discipline of timing as well as cooking."
In charge of NVQ training at Strangeways is catering manager Joanne Parsons. She has worked in the prison's catering department for eight years and explains the route through which prisoners get on to the kitchen NVQ training scheme. "All prisoners are entitled to the same rehabilitation opportunities. If they apply for kitchen training, we look at how they have addressed their offending behaviour, and their attitude.
"They are working with knives and hot liquids, but they know what the rules are, and if they step out of line they will be out of the kitchen. We get the odd bit of shouting between them when the pressure is on, but what kitchen doesn't? I think we probably get less tension between our kitchen staff than in most outside kitchens."
One benefit of learning chef skills in prison is the diversity of the operation. Every diet under the sun has to be catered for, from vegetarian and Rastafarian to medical diets. And the trainees don't just feed their fellow prisoners - there is also catering for staff and function menus for visits by inspection and management bodies.
All the prisons that have adopted NVQ training schemes operate similar systems in which a civilian prison chef manages a team of trainee chefs in a kitchen section. Trainees learn one kitchen section then move on to another, picking up all the basic cooking skills needed for NVQ level 2 certification.
The Prison Service says the trainee chefs it is turning out can adapt to any kind of kitchen operation, from high-street or hotel restaurant to the not-for-profit sector, but the most obvious fit is in the contract catering and institutional sector.
Sodexho has been working with the Prison Service on the Custody to Work scheme for two years. In a remarkable leap of faith for the military establishment, ex-offenders and day-release prisoners are working on an MoD catering contract in Aldershot, Hampshire.
General services manager for Sodexho at Aldershot, Graham Rigate, says those serving their prison sentence come into work each day the same as every other employee on site. "We don't treat them any differently. The client and our senior managers know the background, but we leave it up to the individual whether they wish to tell other employees."
Rigate says the commitment to hard work and the skills level of the ex-offenders is excellent. And on the issue of security, Rigate's answer is unequivocal: "We've never had a problem in the two years we have been working with this programme."
Oliver, however, has no illusions about the prejudices the ex-offenders are battling against. Potential employers often feel that someone who has been in prison carries unwanted baggage. "They can always find an excuse why it's a very good scheme, but not quite for them," he says.
Which poses the ultimate test of Home Office belief in the training scheme: would a prison employ a civilian chef who was an ex-offender and had learnt their craft in prison? Oliver pauses thoughtfully before giving his answer: "There is no rule that says we can't employ ex-offenders as chefs. I would like to think we would, if the right candidate came along. We have to have confidence in our own training scheme."
Fast food at Feltham
In addition to the traditional NVQ kitchen-skills training programmes in prisons, the needs of the fast-food industry are being addressed with the setting up of a training scheme at Feltham young offenders' prison in London that teaches young people the cooking and hygiene skills needed for working in a fast-food restaurant.
Contact
Employers wanting to learn more about the ex-offender chef training scheme can contact David Oliver on 07968 907115.
Within these walls
Arthur is an example of what the prison training scheme can achieve. Before committal to Strangeways, Arthur's career was in designing robotics for the car industry, travelling the world and staying in four-star hotels. He got into money problems through bad habits and sought an easy solution, which caught up with him two years ago.
Although he has hoteliers in his family, by his own admission, Arthur's kitchen skills did not extend far beyond tea and toast before he went in to Strangeways. Like most prisoners, he was offered a choice of work and training schemes, and chose chef training.
For Arthur, the training has resulted in NVQ level 2 certificates in health and hygiene and in kitchen skills, and a passion for food. While he knows he could make twice the salary going back to his old job in robotics after his expected release in a few weeks' time, he has chosen to stay in the catering industry.
Says Arthur: "Anybody who works in a kitchen knows the passion you get for cooking. You get focused on it. You don't bother about the hard work, the hours and the pay rates; they aren't the drivers of what makes you want to do it."
Yet he is aware of the employment steeplechase he is about to begin. "You have to be open from the beginning that you have been inside, and that, for a lot of employers, is a reason to say no. What employers don't grasp is that, while the majority of kitchen staff are wanderers by nature, when you have come my route you value your job and have loyalty."
Catering manager Joanne Parsons says that such are the management and cooking skills Arthur has developed under the prison training scheme that he could run the whole prison catering operation if asked, "but we have lots of trainees like that on the NVQ scheme, they all become tremendously focused on the output of the kitchen."
Would you employ a former prisoner?
David Goldfarb, director, Mayday recruitment
"If the offence is spent, there is no reason to treat ex-offenders any differently. It's down to the candidate to sell themselves and for the employer to take the best person for the job. I'd like to think that 99% of offenders are not career criminals."
Sophie Darmas, training officer, Groupe Chez Gérard
"Yes, we would consider anyone on merit, but it would depend on their qualifications. We simply have never been approached."
Robyn Jones, chief executive of contract caterers Charlton House "Employing ex-offenders wouldn't be an issue for the company, although we would be concerned with suitability and the type of work he or she would be doing. Working on a schools contract, for instance, might be an issue, so we would take a sensible approach as to the type of work that particular person gets. Otherwise, it isn't something we take into account."
Simon Longbottom, director and general manager of Ember Inns "As far as employing ex-offenders goes, the moral view is that we would deal with each case as it comes. However, you can't get away from the fact that we are a cash and stock business, so we'd have to look at the individual's circumstances to find out what had happened, what training they had and so on. It comes down to treating each person as they come."
