- Virgin Trains doubled expected number for recruiting former offenders
- Prison recruitment fairs to run quarterly across west coast route
- Virgin urges other employers to consider recruiting offenders
LONDON, 2016-Nov-12 — /Travel PR News/ — Virgin Trains is making prison recruitment fairs a regular part of its talent-hunting process.
The London to Scotland operator is holding recruitment events within prisons across the UK every three months in a bid to identify talented candidates and help end the revolving door syndrome of reoffending.
The train operator has been actively recruiting people with criminal convictions since 2013 when founder Sir Richard Branson challenged Virgin businesses and the wider business community to help reduce reoffending.
In 2014 Virgin Trains undertook to employ 12 people with convictions as part of the contract awarded by the Department for Transport to run services on the west coast. It currently has 27 people working in the business who were recruited through this programme.
Kathryn Wildman, who leads recruitment on the west coast route, said Virgin Trains had incorporated prison recruitment fairs into its normal recruitment programme after they proved successful in sourcing talented candidates for jobs with the company.
Speaking after a recruitment fair held in HMP Addiewell earlier this week, she said: “We started this process three years ago with relatively modest ambitions. But we’ve been really pleased with the calibre of candidates we’ve managed to attract through prison recruitment events and our wider ex offenders programme and so we’ve decided to incorporate these into our regular calendar of recruitment events.
“This isn’t just about helping society and giving people a chance to turn their lives around. It’s hiring the best people no matter what their background is. We’d urge other employers who might be thinking about this to give it a go.”
Virgin Trains has established partnerships with HM Prison Service, the Scottish Prison Service and private prison operators, all of whom work with inmates who are nearing the end of their sentence to identify employment opportunities.
Scotland’s Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said: “Supporting people into work when they come out of custody is an essential part of their reintegration, and helps to reduce the chances of them offending again. We are working with the public sector, including the Scottish Prison Service, and private businesses to make it easier for people with convictions to find employment. Virgin Trains are very supportive of this work and I am delighted to hear of this latest partnership with HMP Addiewell to tackle the barriers which prevent people from turning their lives around.”
In 2015, Virgin Trains began operating services on the east coast and is looking to expand this programme to include that route.
About Virgin Trains:
Stagecoach and Virgin are working in partnership to operate the East Coast and West Coast inter-city routes under the Virgin Trains brand. Together, they are on track to revolutionise rail travel across the UK.
The combined network connects some of the nation’s most iconic destinations including Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, York and London.
Virgin Trains is committed to delivering a high speed, high frequency service, offering shorter journey times, more comfortable travel and excellent customer service. Customers consistently rate Virgin Trains as one of the top long-distance rail franchise operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) commissioned by industry watchdog, Transport Focus.
On the East Coast route, £140m is being invested to create a more personalised travel experience. We have already invested £21m to completely revamp our existing fleet and customers can now benefit from 42 additional services (22,000 extra seats) per week between Edinburgh and London. 2018 will see the introduction of completely new Azuma trains being built in the UK by Hitachi.
The West Coast route has a proud record of challenging the status quo – from introducing tilting Pendolino trains, to a pioneering automated delay repay scheme and becoming the first franchised rail operator to offer m-Tickets for all ticket types.
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Source: Virgin Trains
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