Associate Trainer

**The role**

This role is an exciting opportunity to be part of the Unlocked Graduates Summer Institute. Summer Institute is an intense, residential, seven-week programme where we deliver initial prison officer training to our new cohort. Associate Trainers will primarily support in the classroom, using their experience of the criminal justice system to increase participants’ understanding of prisons and those held in custody.

You will work alongside our Mentoring Prison Officers and Summer Trainers. These groups are made up of individuals with experience of being prison officers and delivering prison officer training. You will work closely with them to guide a group of participants as they make rapid progress towards becoming excellent prison officers at our Summer Institute.

You will also play a key part in the logístical delivery of Summer Institute, assisting with setting up the training spaces, supporting with equipment and resource management and playing an active part in supporting our practice-based learning sessions.

See “A day in the life of an Associate Trainer” section below for more details of the role.

**Dates**

Ideally, you would join us for the full project length of ten weeks. This consists of three weeks of staff training followed by Summer Institute.

We recognise that your availability may be constrained by other job commitments or pre-booked leave. We’d still be keen to hear from you if you cannot do the whole ten weeks. Doing the role part-time is also possible.

We are also in the process of confirming the model and it’s likely there will be a gap in the weeks commencing 7th and 14th August where participants will be undergoing prison-based training in their regions. These two weeks will either be a chance to take some well-earned rest, or for those of you still in operational roles, it might be an opportunity to return to support your prison.

**The organisation**

Unlocked Graduates exists to break cycles of reoffending, with a particular focus on breaking the link between disadvantage and reoffending. Currently prison is not a place which successfully does this: the average prisoner has 16 previous convictions and 48 percent of prisoners reoffend within a year of release. This is the problem which Unlocked Graduates exists to fix.

Prison officers are the agent of change for many prisoners. Of all the staff in prisons, they spend the most time with prisoners, they set the prevailing culture in prison, and we know that the most effective prison officers have a hugely positive impact on prisoners. Unlocked Graduates develops outstanding individuals to lead rehabilitation, and in doing so raises the status of the prison officer and makes the frontline of prisons a place where cycles of reoffending can be broken.

We have successfully recruited, trained and placed six cohorts of over 600 extremely high potential graduates into the prison officer role across England and Wales. We are listed in the Times Top 100 Graduate programmes and feedback on our participants has been extremely positive: they are doing a great job. Over the next few years, we are planning further expansion. We want to do more work in the prisons we are in, and work with more prisoners in more prisons.

We need to be exceptionally high performing because the work we do is both extremely challenging and massively urgent. We aspire to have deep impact on the landings of individual prisons, but also breadth of impact through the whole sector, and society at large.

**Diversity**

All job offers will be conditional on further vetting checks, including no misrepresentation of offences in disclosure to Unlocked Graduates.