Following HR’s inaugural visit to HMP Belmarsh a few weeks ago to meet with their Employability Lead, Michelle Molver; Dawn and Nerhan were invited back to speak to around 20 inmates in their Employability Hub about working in our Sector, and this time they took along Ozay Kemal, Purdy Domestic Gas Engineer, and Michael McIntosh, Purdy Site Manager at Hackney, to talk about their experiences working and progression within the company.

The audience were shown our Corporate introductory video, and Dawn spoke about working not only within the Kinovo Group, but within build services generally, about qualification routes, on-the-job training, and making it clear that those who wanted to turn their lives around could genuinely do so.

Next up was Ozay, talking about his life as a Gas Engineer, what a typical day involved, and the difference he makes to residents’ lives. Michael was the last to speak about his own background, how he has progressed from a carpenter to Site Manager, and the questions came thick and fast from the floor to us all – which we were happy to answer – about the practicalities of applying for work, through to the qualifications needed.

The Government has tasked employers like us to help give people a chance to turn their lives around and ex-offenders are part of the underrepresented workforce which we have an obligation to at least consider for vacancies.