Nic Preston, CEO of SFEDI Awards

A new qualification for budding business owners is about to be piloted in a selected number of prisons in the UK. The Level 1 Award in Understanding Enterprising Qualities from SFEDI Awards is now available on the Virtual Campus for individuals considering self employment. Virtual Campus allows access to learning resources to assist offenders on their journey to resettlement outside of prison.

The course is for those who may have limited or no understanding of what enterprise or self-employment entails but have an interest in exploring it as an option. It helps them understand whether running a business has potential for generating an income and find out more about the skills and knowledge required. This is a short duration course and can lead to further learning for individuals interested in developing their enterprise skills further.

Longer term there are plans to explore enterprise mentoring opportunities for ex-offenders to support them as they start and grow their businesses. Nic Preston, CEO of SFEDI Awards, says:

"We're very excited about piloting this qualification in prisons. We believe that self employment is a fantastic career choice. We pride ourselves on providing excellent support and guidance to everyone that chooses to control their own destiny by starting and running their own business".

Manchester College is the first training provider on board to deliver the training with more providers coming on board as different prisons show interest in bringing the qualification to their learners. Pat Walker from Manchester College says:

“We are delighted to be working with SFEDI. This qualification will form the first part of the OLASS progression model and could add real value to our enterprise curriculum. Our objective in the longer term is to create wider benefits for learners by engaging enterprise mentors to enhance curriculum delivery and enable progression”.

If you are a training provider that is currently delivering in prisons and are interested in finding out more about this qualification contact [email protected]