Offender workforce development is comprehensive career-related services delivered to persons with criminal histories. Ideally, the services are provided through a collaborative effort involving

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

and

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The private sector employs most of the workfo ...

professionals and may include, but are not limited to, career exploration and

planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...

, job readiness instruction, industry-driven education, occupational skill development, vocational technical training, and

job placement An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In developed countries, there are multiple private businesses which act as employment agencies and a publicly funded employment agency. Public employment agencies One ...

and retention services. When these services are delivered to incarcerated persons nearing release, formal agreements with

community-based organizations Community organization or community based organization refers to organization aimed at making desired improvements to a community's social health, well-being, and overall functioning. Community organization occurs in geographically, psychosocially ...

are used to ensure a seamless continuity of assistance between

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

s, and the community to avoid duplication of effort. Offender workforce development services have three major objectives: # Promote

public safety Public security or public safety is the prevention of and protection from events that could endanger the safety and security of the public from significant danger, injury, or property damage. It is often conducted by a state government to ensu ...

by increasing the

employment rate Employment-to-population ratio, also called the employment rate, is a statistical ratio that measures the proportion of a country's working age population (statistics are often given for ages 15 to 64) that is employed. This includes people that ...

of persons with criminal convictions and decreasing the likelihood of their re-arrest. # Promote the economic well-being of a community by providing employers with a qualified, technologically competent

workforce In macroeconomics, the workforce or labour force is the sum of people either working (i.e., the employed) or looking for work (i.e., the unemployed): \text = \text + \text Those neither working in the marketplace nor looking for work are out ...

that can compete in the global marketplace. # Reduce the likelihood of inter-generational

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

by providing families of offenders with a sustainable

income Income is the consumption and saving opportunity gained by an entity within a specified timeframe, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. Income is difficult to define conceptually and the definition may be different across fields. F ...

and a stable family structure. To increase the effectiveness of practitioners who provide these services, the National Institute of Corrections partnered with the National Career Development Association to develop the Offender Workforce Development Specialist Training Program. The program includes instruction in the following areas: career development theory and application, understanding and using facilitation skills, the role of assessment in career planning and job placement, instruction and group facilitation, designing and implementing training and work development services, barriers to employment,

ethics Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...

and the career development facilitator, transition interventions for the offender population, job seeking and employability skills, job retention, and the role of information and

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

s in career planning. Offender Workforce Development Specialists use the competencies achieved in the instruction to assist offenders in making informed decisions about jobs and career paths, based on knowledge of their interests, skills, abilities, and values. Offender Workforce Development Specialists may work in settings such as prisons, jails, pre-release facilities,

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offence (law), offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incar ...

offices,

parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

offices, one-stop career centers,

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

s, or vocational rehabilitation centers. Depending on work location, the Offender Workforce Development Specialist may be employed as a teacher, case manager, offender employment specialist, or job counselor.

References

{{Reflist Career development Penology