Prison ‘graduates’ who can earn Dh40,000 a month

ABU DHABI // The work readiness programme for UAE nationals, operated and managed by the Higher Colleges of Technology, is probably the most successful project at Al Wathba.
The training offers prisoners employment opportunities when they complete their sentences, and some have gone on to jobs that command monthly salaries of up to Dh40,000.
"Even the classrooms were designed at Al Wathba prison to resemble those at the higher colleges," said Capt Abduljaleel Ismail, manager of the prison's rehabilitation section.
The programme is available to inmates who have only a year or two remaining on their sentence.
They are given lessons in English, Arabic, maths and computer studies by professors from HCT. There are 40 to 60 participants each term, and they are in class from 9am to 2pm. After completing the programme, they receive a certificate equivalent to a diploma.
The programme was launched in February 2007 with a class of 55. So far, 342 inmates have participated in the classes, and 107 of 108 graduates have found employment.
Participants wear yellow uniforms during class time that distinguish them from the other inmates, who are usually dressed in blue or white coveralls.
"We don't want them to feel like they are in prison," said Col Mohammed Al Zaabi, manager of the punishment and corrections department. "We want them to feel like they are students and in an educational environment, which is why we requested that the classrooms closely resemble those at HCT."
The programme is exclusive to UAE nationals because its goal is to offer continuing education and, eventually, a job upon release.
"Mostly expatriates come to the country with academic qualifications from their own country, but we give them the chance to take part in the English, ICDL [computer courses] and other programmes."
He added that inmates released before they have completed the coursework have the opportunity to finish at HCT without anyone knowing they were previously in prison.
"He goes in like any other student," Col Al Zaabi said.
The two-year HCT training programme is "for Emiratis who may or may not have missed out on academia", said Dr Farid Elyahky, dean of the work readiness programme. "The first year is based on academic work that revolves around the four major subjects. The second year revolves around acquiring job skills and includes work placement."
The job skills offered are based on the demands of the market.
"We place students in groups and in specific industries according to current demand such as banking, customer services and so on. If a company approaches us and tells us that within a year or two they will need people qualified in a certain field, then we will incorporate that in the programme. We give them the skills and something solid to guarantee a career and a future."
Dr Elyaky said 97 per cent of the inmates who have graduated from the programme have found jobs.
"This is based on good faith or a 'gentlemen's agreement', as they say. The country has promised to employ them and along with the help of Tawteen almost all of them have found employment."
Former inmates are monitored after they leave Al Wathba, which receives periodical reports. Pay for ex-inmates is commensurate with any other job-seeker.
"The minimum offered to a graduate of the programme is Dh10,000 and I can safely say that there are some making Dh40,000 as we speak," Dr Elyaky said.
That these graduates were once prisoners is not an issue. "They are not hard-core criminals and come recommended by Al Wathba. We have never come across an employer who has objected to hiring a graduate because they were once in prison."
salnuwais@thenational.ae