"Being ignorant is not a shame, but refusing to learn is" – Building up basic skills, recognition of prior learning and expertise by experience as tools for attachment to society
Statistics collected by the Criminal Sanctions Agency (2022) show that around 5,000 prisoners are released in Finland every year. The key objective of a prison sentence is the prisoner’s holistic rehabilitation and reintegration into society. This activity has significant societal impacts, both in the economic sense and from the perspective of human dignity.
The achievement of this goal is promoted in Finnish prisons in many ways, which include social rehabilitation, preparation for release, building up the prisoner's resources, programme work that promotes reintegration as well as studying and working while the prisoner is still serving their sentence. This article has a particular focus on one of these activities: the possibilities of studying and learning in Finnish prisons.
According to the Criminal Sanctions Agency, the basic idea of education and work activities in prisons is reducing reoffending and improving employment opportunities, boosting prisoners’ self-esteem, developing their social skills and improving their general wellbeing and ability to manage daily life. In addition, efforts are made to influence prisoners’ attitudes by means of education and work activities.
A world of opportunities for studying while in prison
In keeping with the principle of normality prisoners should, despite the prison sentence, basically be guaranteed equal opportunities for studying with other citizens. In Finland, instruction provided in prison is often organised in cooperation with outside institutions. Once they have completed the education or training, the institution issues the prisoner with a certificate which does not indicate that it was obtained while serving a custodial sentence.
According to the Criminal Sanctions Agency, basic education, general upper secondary education, preparatory training for a qualification and upper secondary vocational education and training are provided as contact instruction in prisons. In addition, various short courses are offered in prisons, including digital and art education as well as Finnish language instruction for foreign prisoners. Prisoners can also take higher education studies independently as distance learning. While the possibilities for providing digital teaching are still limited, they are being developed continuously.
Prisoners are often offered vocational education and training in connection with the prison's work activities. In practice, the staff supervising the prisoner’s work act as their workplace instructor as stated in a training or apprenticeship agreement. This operating model requires close cooperation between the instructor and the staff supervising the work. The work activities make it possible for prisoners to complete vocational qualifications or parts of them in a number of different fields, and efforts are also being made to continuously expand these possibilities.
If a prisoner is serving their sentence in an open prison, they may also be granted permission to study outside the prison. These study permissions are often granted for either upper secondary level or higher education studies. In addition to education and training, a prisoner may apply for permission to work outside the prison in tasks linked to vocational studies.
Reintegration in society through building up basic skills
In 2023–2025, the Finnish Service Centre for Continuous Learning and Employment (JOTPA) is carrying out an experiment relating to basic skills training for prisoners. According to JOTPA, the purpose of the experiment is to promote and build up the basic skills of the most vulnerable prison population. The experiment is carried out in cooperation between the Finnish National Agency for Education, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Criminal Sanctions Agency.
“The basic skills training is funded with a discretionary government grant, applications for which are addressed to JOTPA. Liberal adult education providers, including folk high schools and adult education centres, were eligible for these grants. In addition to strengthening prisoners’ basic skills, the experiment aims to build up liberal adult education providers’ experience in working together with prisons", says Milma Arola, Project Manager at the Service Centre for Continuous Learning and Employment.
It is part of Arola's job description to consider how those with a lower education level and in a disadvantaged position could be engaged in education and training and included in the world of work better. She points out that people serving custodial sentences have relatively poor basic skills, in particular.
“One goal of prisons is to ensure that convicts do not reoffend. Education promotes social integration in many ways, and in prisons, there is already some vocational training available. However, participation in them would require existing basic skills. This is why more training in basic skills is needed in addition to vocational education and training – and this is the key point of the basic skills training experiment”, Arola says.
The experiment also promotes more broadly, the realisation of social equality. The concepts of continuous learning and lifelong learning are today key background factors of social equality, which is why having sufficient basic skills is vital.
“The basic skills include those essential for learning, such as mathematical skills, literacy, skills in searching for information, digital and communication skills, interaction skills, and skills related to wellbeing at work, recognising your personal competence, and managing your time use. Additionally, numeracy and financial skills, including in the context of salaries, savings and managing your personal finances, can be considered basic skills", Arola lists.
Consequently, the aim of building up basic skills is to improve the prisoner’s ability to adapt to society, find employment and lead a life without crime after being released. This way, the basic skills training helps to pave the way to reintegration into society once the prisoner has served their sentence – and especially to life after prison.
The proficiency level of basic skills is linked to whether an individual seeks education and studies during and after their time in prison. Insufficient basic skills create a challenge in acquiring the necessary competence or vocational readiness for the workforce. They pose difficulties in various aspects, including participation in civil society, utilization of service systems, and functioning in everyday life in a society that values high-level skills. Therefore, it is particularly important to make the proficiency in basic skills visible in the workplace. To achieve this goal, the Finnish National Agency for Education is currently undertaking a project aimed at developing competency badges related to basic skills.
Badges build confidence
The project led by the National Agency for Education related to badges for basic skills is part of the broader Jotpa basic skills training. The national basic skills badges focus on the skills adults need in the world of work. The badges can be used to identify, recognise and make visible transversal and general competences needed in the workplace.
"A new national tool for identifying and recognising prior learning, the like of which has never before been seen at any level of education, is being created and put together in the competence badge project", sums up Marja Juhola, Planning Officer at the Finnish National Agency for Education.
The new competency badges cover six essential workplace skills: learning skills, numerical and financial skills, literacy skills, sustainability competence, digital skills, and interaction and well-being at work skills. There are 3–8 badges per theme.
“Quite simply, the badge is proof of competence in some aspect handed out instead of a certificate. In a sense, you can compare them to the badges obtained by scouts”, Juhola sums up.
Juhola explains that, the concept of badges is not new in itself, but previously, there were no nationally defined competency goals and assessment criteria for them. The intention is that adult education institutions can, if they wish, offer participants in basic skills training the opportunity to earn these badges.
“The idea of the competence badges is underpinned by two things: firstly, there are people who have existing competence but no official documentation of it. A competence badges may, for example, facilitate transition to studies or work life. Secondly, there are people with a poor level of basic skills. Small steps, such as badges awarded during the course can both increase enthusiasm and motivation for learning and strengthen the person's sense of self-efficacy. This is particularly important for the target group in question”, Juhola explains.
Currently, the learning outcomes and assessment criteria for the badges have more or less been completed. Comments have already been requested from the field of education, including institution representatives and specialists, and other interested stakeholders have been able to comment on them separately.
“Next spring, we will communicate about the content, principles, and implementation of the competency badges to the field. The official launch is scheduled for August 1, 2024”, Juhola estimates.
Expertise by experience helps to deal with your past and encourages you to look for a new direction in life
Those with a criminal and substance abuse background are generally more likely to be disadvantaged than others. For example, it is often harder for them to find jobs as people may react negatively to them. There are a number of theories of criminality, many of which put forward views of both the importance of the environment and the impact of crime. It has indeed been proven that rejection by other people has a direct effect on criminal behaviour, and in many cases people end up being involved in crime precisely because of social reactions.
As a result of continuous social rejection, a person's identity starts to be shaped by what other people think of them. On the other hand, you could argue that committing an offence weakens your social position, not the other way around. To prevent reoffending, it is in any case important to focus on how a person serving a custodial sentence experiences themselves after their release.
As a tool for responding to this challenge, a project titled KEIJO was conducted with European Social Fund financing in Finland in 2018–2020. Its purpose was creating an expert by experience training course that can be recognised vocationally. The purpose of the training was to help the difficult-to-employ target group to find jobs and to encourage them to apply for a place in further education.
Criminal sanctions and substance abuse rehabilitation actors were involved in setting up the KEIJO project, in addition to which the training was developed together with the participants. The idea of the training based on expertise by experience was to draw on the participants' personal experiences of overcoming both substance abuse and a life of crime.
“The KEIJO training was developed in a project aimed at promoting employment and is currently delivered as vocational training at Laurea University of Applied Sciences. The goal of KEIJO training is to find employment and to support the participants’ growth towards expertise by experience and using their knowledge gained by experience in a vocational context. Ideally, the participants would find different paths leading to the world of work and studies, explains Janika Lindström, A lecturer in the field of criminal justice at Laurea University of Applied Sciences who has extensively researched the subject.
Over the longer term, the training is also expected to have impacts on the competence and understanding of professionals working with people with a substance abuse and criminal background in different organisations regarding the rehabilitation of these groups. Among other things, it can be used to promote the development of service systems while reducing prejudices against people with a background of substance abuse or crime. The training was also expected to have positive impacts directly on the participants' personal recovery, well-being and experience of inclusion.
“The training has helped people with a criminal and substance abuse background to deal with their past and provided them with peer support for their experiences. Peer support and the strengthening of expertise by experience have been a significant help for prisoners in putting intoxicants and crime behind them and recovering from negative experiences”, Lindström stresses.
For some, the expertise by experience training has additionally given completely new and positive perspectives on the field of education and training in general, which in turn have promoted their interest in further education also after their release from prison.
"When thinking about studying, topmost in many people’s minds may be the challenges they encountered in comprehensive school and the bad experiences this led to. Their ideas of education and its meanings have been successfully modified during the training, however. Several of them have gone on to pursue studies in such fields as guidance and education, practical nursing programmes or various fields in universities of applied sciences. At least one went on to study social work at a university”, Lindström relates happily.
In Lindström’s opinion, one of the most effective operating methods is engaging the participants both during and after the training.
“The participants in expertise by experience training are very much involved during the teaching periods and in language classes, for example, they speak English the same as anyone else. After finishing the training, some experts by experience have become involved as co-researchers in Laurea’s project titled VoimaProfi, which promotes clients’ and citizens’ participation through action research. For example, they have documented their work in journals and participated in analysing them in this project. In addition, they have an opportunity to participate in co-writing a scientific article to be submitted for peer review”, Lindström explains.
Consequently, the training for experts by experience has brought participants from strength to strength. It has promoted their employment, participation and inclusion in community and provided them with new social networks. Regarding the future and development of the project, Lindström would like to see solutions sought not only for how the training model could be improved but also for how experts by experience could forge closer links with the world of work and how they could be offered more versatile opportunities.
“Concrete examples of such actions could include launching an operating environment that supports employment pathways, providing services together with KEIJO project participants where they could make use of their competence in form of light entrepreneurship, and increasing the offer of low-threshold services for persons whose substance abuse and criminal offences are symptoms of other problems”, Lindström sums up.
However, the key is maintaining and developing cooperation with KEIJO participants now and in the future.
"When we are training experts by experience, it is particularly important for us that we listen to their ideas and start putting them into practice. For example, on the initiative of one of the experts, we have started to promote preventive work by offering the police an opportunity to bring experts by experience with them on school visits. In addition, our experts by experience have become involved in multiprofessional cooperation with the police, social workers and youth workers focusing on young people who use intoxicants and commit offences as a symptom of their problems. Their role in this work is telling young people why committing offences and abusing intoxicants are not worthwhile and how you can get out of that kind of life. On this, they have received positive feedback”, Lindström explains.
Trends and future of prison learning
The issue of individual and society-wide challenges associated with the education and employment of people with a criminal background has been broadly acknowledged. In recent years, diverse solutions to these challenges have been sought in various projects. The projects have succeeded in producing several different tools for managing and solving the challenges. They have also helped to develop education and training activities in prisons, which is an important factor in the reintegration of prisoners into society.
Every experience of success gained and effective tool developed as a result of the projects underlines the importance of learning as a promoter of an equal society in which human dignity is respected. However, it is particularly important to also look for solutions alongside project activities in the future. Education and training must be a sustained activity that should under no circumstances be hindered by a lack of financing or actors. Finland has taken major steps towards both reducing reoffending and encouraging individuals serving prison sentences to pursue employment and further education during and after their sentences, but there is still plenty of work to do, and always scope for improvement!
Sources
The Service Centre for Continuous Learning and Employment
Kurvinen, J. 2020, ”Oikeesti mä oon yhteiskunnassa” – KEIJO-hankkeen kokemusasiantuntijoiden näkökulmia osallisuudesta. Thesis, Laurea University of Applied Sciences
* The quote in the headline is from an American journalist and author Benjamin Franklin.
