A clean slate: the skills contest showcasing training for prisoners

A competition to find the country's best cleaners is now running in a number of prisons.

The UK Team Clean Challenge has already been held outside the prisons' sector. It is hoped the roll out to 12 prisons will help highlight the excellent training available to offenders while they serve their sentences.

The competition is a joint initiative between Asset Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the cleaning industry, and Working Ventures UK.

It is hoped it will show prisoners that cleaning can be a viable and worthwhile job to consider for the future, and flag to employers the quality training on offer within prisons for potential future workers.

It is one of 22 skills contests running across a range of industries and overseen nationally by UK Skills.

The UK Team Clean Challenge covers the following categories: best prison, best manager, best supervisor and best operative. The judges will also look for social skills, including teamwork and project management, when deciding the winners.

Employers from across the cleaning industry will be present at each stage of the competition, which culminates in an awards ceremony on 11 March where the winners will be acknowledged.

The purpose of the challenge is to:

• highlight the high standard of cleaning training delivered in prisons
• provide an opportunity for participants to build confidence and demonstrate a range of -skills to secure employment following release
• showcase these skills to potential employers
• highlight the commitment to delivering 11,000 British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) certificates issued each year to prison cleaners, trainers and assessors.

The UK TCC Prison Strand is jointly sponsored by HMPS Regime Services and Johnson Diversy.