The Correctional Services Department has opened its first vocational training centre on Hei Ling Chau, offering inmates full-time pre-release career coaching.

The Lai Sun Correctional Institution Vocational Training Centre provides 260 places with courses and lessons on a host of trades for inmates two years before discharge. Participants that pass can get accredited certificates. Local male inmates aged 21 or above can apply to take the courses.

Commissioner of Correctional Services Pang Sung-yuen said with the training centre's establishment, rehabilitation services have reached a higher and more professional level.

Social responsibility

"One of the important themes of the new correctional focus, with the aim of helping rehabilitated offenders reintegrate into society, is to execute a common social responsibility by integrating the resources and manpower of the community," Mr Pang said.

The penal population at institutions for young offenders has been falling in recent years despite prisons generally being continuously overcrowded.

"After careful consideration and comprehensive planning, we converted Lai Sun, formerly a prison and drug addiction treatment centre for youths, into a market-oriented job training centre to use government resources more effectively, to put into effect this new thinking, and to help [rehabilitated offenders] solve their employment difficulties," Mr Pang said.

Institution Superintendent Mathias Chan said acquisition of skills and certificates by inmates after completion of training will help equip them for the future and enhance their competitiveness and self-confidence. It will be easier for them to reintegrate into society, he added.