The New Leaf Skills Acquisition Program

In the Skills Acquisition program, inmates learn practical skills that prepare them to earn a living and become productive once released from prison. It is a vocational training program where inmates, with the help of NLF training personnel, choose marketable skills that they can enjoy and use to develop a trade.

NLF finds the money spent on this program to be of immeasurable value because skilled former inmates normally find it relatively easy to re-integrate in their respective communities. They gain self- esteem and because they are gainfully employed, the community is at ease and should not feel threatened by former inmates. Some even establish successful businesses based on the trade learned through NLF’s programs, and they become respectable employers in their community.

NLF has established the skills that are marketable amongst Nigerian communities, and they are continuously studying the market to see what other skills they can add to the program.

Vocational Training Program

Following is a description of the vocational programs that NLF hopes to initiate for the prisoners. These are programs selected to sustain and benefit the inmates after their release from prison. In most cases, the ability to acquire and maintain employment is a key ingredient to success upon release from prison. That’s why learning a viable trade is so vital to the NLF. The offenders will learn an in-demand skill, which empowers them to one day become qualified employees, or even self-employed proprietors of their own businesses.
Being able to support themselves helps keep former inmates on the path of a law-abiding life. Being employed instills a sense of purpose and self-esteem. Becoming proficient in a craft bodes well for the respect they may receive in the community.