Rehabilitation can be facilitated by improving an inmate’s academic and job skills. Records show that many prisoners are poorly educated. A majority are elementary school dropouts or have not even finished primary school. Prison education amounts to remedial schooling designed to prepare inmates to obtain basic skills in reading, writing, and mathematics.
In most correctional facilities, vocational programs are incorporated into job assignments and serve as on-the-job training. The goal is to provide inmates with skills that will improve their eligibility for jobs upon release. Most prison vocational training is geared toward traditional blue-collar employment in areas such as electronics, auto mechanics, and handicrafts. At the Reception and Diagnostic Center, a basic computer literacy course with typing as a support course is available for inmates who have finished at least high school level.
Vocational training and social education focus on job readiness. The concern in these areas is life skills. If inmates are to reenter society and abstain from criminal activity, they must be employable and have the basic tools necessary to function as responsible citizens.
The National Penitentiary has a college degree program and a tertiary degree correspondence course, in addition to the regular secondary and compulsory basic literacy classes. Prisoners are strongly encouraged by the BuCor authorities to enroll while serving their sentence and to advance their academic skills.