So this is how they are going to get around the so called driver shortage
dailymail.co.uk/news/article … eople.html
Of all my years driving, like lots of others on here, ive paid for everything myself, LGV licence, ADR certificate, CPC courses (biggest farce going), Driver medical, Digi card, the list goes on, and have had nothing for free…whats the old saying…crime DOES pay!
At least they will be qualified to drive the vehicles they hijack.
The article says funding comes from the Royal London Society. All I can find is a Royal London Society for the blind
The last time this idea was floated it was from , I believe, from a Conservative minister.
I approve of steps to re-educate and prepare convicts for a law abiding life
I wonder what the other professions are for which convicts are being prepared.
It doesn’t really do much for our image
I’m not a criminal, I’m a lorry driver
…well, same thing really, innit?
Which jobs do Prison qualifications prepare one for?
Lemme see… A good Phd (‘Porridge - have done’) could well be the only thing getting you into the following jobs nowdays…
Banking
Estate Agents
Used Car Dealers
Consultancies
Media
CEO of any large business
Counsellors
Feel free to add to this list - It’s hardly a complete one. 
Seems fair to me that prisoners that have a desire to change their ways are given an opportunity to undertake training (of any description) to at least give them some sort of ‘leg up’ when out.
Am sure that Stobrats will snap them up, especially if they photogenic and have a human interest story to boost the ratings of their dreary tv show.
there is a company in northfleet kent who already employ them through this scheme
Timpsons (shoe repairers) recruit from prisons, and on a documentary recently the gaffer was saying that you get people who really want and value a job by doing this.
I say fair play to them. An old workplace of mine tried advertising in the Job center, and got a perpetual stream of applicants who didn’t actually want a job but needed to tick the box to say they had approached employers to get their extra job seekers allowance…
In the end we came up with a genius idea, we gave each ‘applicant’ an air fix model and said if you bring it back complete (or make an effort) you got an interview. Worked a treat! Got two good guys that way who actually wanted a job, and was a quick cheap way of sending about 150 straight out of the door. Eventually we stopped advertising in the job center as the success ratio was so low it wasn’t worth it.
Anyway, if people released from prison actually want a job and are willing to do the training then that is better for society than them staying in the crime cycle.
I’m not against rehabilitation and on face value its not a bad idea, people are less likely to cut up trucks if they are aware the driver could be an ex-con.
One downside is that a lot of Cat D prisoners are inside for driving offences, sure theres a good vetting process though to weed those out in favour of someone more deserving.
Anyway perhaps it would be good to find a list of offences that automatically gained you a Cat D entitlement as another route to obtaining a HGV license. Anything non violent should do it, drink driving, walking on the cracks in the pavement, in possesion of an offensive wife etc…
Dipper_Dave:
…people are less likely to cut up trucks if they are aware the driver could be an ex-con.
Why ? 
So we’ll all be ex cons now then, not just tipper drivers 
this annoys me so much, law abiding people like most of us , scrimp,save beg and borrow to get the vocational quals needed to become HGV drivers , then we see criminals getting it for being good inside!! Goes back to naughty children getting holidays and adventure training so they don’t miss out and make them good, why doesn’t society reward good hard working children and adults ?.. I’ll tell you this doesn’t sell news papers!! I’m well urined off another case of do gooders taking the urine.
bald bloke:
Dipper_Dave:
…people are less likely to cut up trucks if they are aware the driver could be an ex-con.Why ?
All about stereotypes really and flawed public perceptions, or maybe just wishfull thinking on my part.
e.g.
Jack: Hello John haven’t seen you for ages where have you been
John: Been in Prison
Jack: OMG who did you kill
John: No one, just stole a car [substitute other lesser offences here]
Jack: Oh thats OK then I’m less nervous now
John: No probs- it was your car though.
Some lorry drivers have always been part of a criminal underclass, with a complete disregard for the rules of society, the safety of others and without any thought for anyone but themselves.
You can find them most days riding inches from the bumper of the family driving legally at 50mph through motorway roadworks, ‘professional’ drivers dropping their unsecured loads (or vehicles) onto other cars or pedestrians, routinely driving over cyclists, whacking bridges etc. The list is endless…
It really is a case of should convicts be driving lorries, or should more lorry drivers be convicts serving time?? 
On the flipside it does make a great deterrent.
Bit harsh though, making minor crimminals serve years of torture and red tape stuck behind the wheel of a HGV vehicle.
LIBERTY_GUY:
Some lorry drivers have always been part of a criminal underclass, with a complete disregard for the rules of society, the safety of others and without any thought for anyone but themselves.
Have we met 
I think what they are forgetting when you go for a job is: Do you have a criminal record? Do they lie and get the job then rob a trailer full of tv’s or do they tell the truth and find out that ex-cons don’t get to work in a responsible job that easy?
We have to break from the namby pamby society that do-gooders have created, if prisons were not like a hotel people would not want to go back after one time in there.
Jeeez what next, prison should be prison. How about putting old folk in there to be looked after instead of treating them like dirt.
No tv.
No en-suite cells.
No provided laptops with internet.
No Mc Donald’s.
No Chinese takeaways.
3 years should be three years, not 12 months with good behavior. if you play up inside then it’s time added on.
And yes all of the above happen - I have a pal who is a prison officer at a nick not far from Wolverhampton.
100,000 short? These idiots must have a quick look on the job centre site and believe that 999,950 jobs advertised by agency scum are genuine jobs.
Fails to mention that this is the left hand of a driving agency providing the training.
Winseer:
Which jobs do Prison qualifications prepare one for?
Lemme see… A good Phd (‘Porridge - have done’) could well be the only thing getting you into the following jobs nowdays…Banking
Estate Agents
Used Car Dealers
Consultancies
Media
CEO of any large business
CounsellorsFeel free to add to this list - It’s hardly a complete one.
- MPs.