# New Beginnings | AI skills for rehabilitation and employment URL: https://newbeginnings.academy/ Rehabilitation · AI literacy · Employment readiness # Rehabilitation for an AI economy. New Beginnings delivers rehabilitation programs that teach AI literacy and job skills to people in custody and on community orders, built around the jobs Australia will be hiring for over the next decade. Our goal is to reduce recidivism: fewer people returning to prison. Request a program briefing See the evidence Available in NSW VIC QLD WA SA TAS NT ACT 50,164 people in custody on an average day ABS, June quarter 2026 78,800 prisoner releases in twelve months ABS, Sep 2025–Jun 2026 44.5% back in prison within two years RoGS 2026, highest since 2019 $13.7m cost of Australia's prisons, every day RoGS 2026 ## Our goal: fewer people back in prison. Recidivism means going back to prison after release. Across Australia, 44.5% of people released are back within two years. Every New Beginnings program is a rehabilitation program, built to bring that number down. 01 ### Work helps people stay out. Having a job is one of the things that most helps people stay out of prison. We teach the AI and digital skills employers now expect, tied to real job pathways. 02 ### Education pays for itself. RAND research found people who take part in correctional education are 43% less likely to return to prison, with more than $4 saved for every $1 spent. 03 ### Rehabilitation continues outside. Our programs run in prison, in community corrections and after release, and we train the officers and staff who support people every day. ## Community corrections: rehabilitation in the community. States are putting more into community corrections and parole; Queensland is one example. We can train the people on orders, the community corrections officers who supervise them and the staff in each office, so rehabilitation keeps going outside prison walls. Training for community corrections → ## AI in plain English. No hype. Most people meet AI as a chatbot on their phone. In the workplace it is already built into the software that runs rosters, quotes, deliveries and job applications. 01 ### It's already on the worksite. AI drafts quotes, checks safety paperwork, plans freight routes, builds rosters and screens job applications. It sits inside the apps workers already use, so they are expected to use it without being taught. 02 ### It changes jobs more than it takes them. Jobs and Skills Australia found generative AI is more likely to augment work than replace it. 79% of workers face low or very low automation risk, provided they can use the tools. 03 ### People leaving custody have had no access. The same study flags disproportionate risk for First Nations Australians from occupational concentration and digital access gaps. Most people in prison have had little or no hands-on time with these tools. For someone leaving custody, the bigger risk is being the only applicant who has never used AI. ## From first promptto first business. Six levels. Start anywhere. Each one is tied to a job pathway and built for low literacy and no learner internet access. All six levels and modules → 01 Foundations Talking to AI, asking good questions, spotting scams. 02 Everyday life Centrelink letters, budgets, health, leases. 03 Getting hired CVs, disclosure, interview role-play. 04 AI on the job Trades, mining, logistics, care, rangers. 05 Working for yourself Quotes, invoices, marketing, the books. 06 Building with AI Websites, automation, an AI-enabled business. ## Who's inside. Where they can work. Full evidence base → 92% male Median age 36.6. Around 30 working years ahead. (ABS 2025) → Trades, logistics, agriculture, care work and self-employment 31% Left school at Year 9 or below. AI can read aloud and rewrite in plain English. (AIHW) → Voice-first learning at every level 37% Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, rising to 88% in the NT. (ABS 2026) → Rangers, land management, community services 37% Hold a trade certificate. A skills base to build on. (AIHW) → AI-enabled trades and self-employment 46% Unemployed in the month before prison, 57% for First Nations entrants. (AIHW) → CVs, disclosure, interview practice +12% Women in custody, the fastest-growing group in 2024–25. (ABS) → Trades, care economy, small business Construction and trades Land and sea management Care and community services Transport and logistics ## Eight systems.One program. Each state and territory runs its own corrective services, with its own population, regime and labour market. Pick a jurisdiction to see its profile and the pathways we prioritise there. Northern Territory 2,842 prisoners 88% First Nations 1,380.1 per 100k adults Pathways we prioritise Indigenous rangers and land management Mining and resources Construction and community services The highest return-to-prison rate in Australia (60.3%). Prisoner numbers grew 24% in 2024–25. Prisoners and First Nations share: ABS, 30 June 2025. Rate per 100,000 adults: ABS, June quarter 2026. Tile photos via Wikimedia Commons: WA, NT, ACT Dietmar Rabich; SA DXR; QLD Dllu; NSW JJ Harrison; VIC Diliff; TAS Thennicke (CC BY-SA 3.0 and 4.0). ## Corrections is all we do. General AI courses assume internet access, a laptop and Year 12 literacy. Ours are rehabilitation programs, designed from the start for secure environments, low literacy and the realities of release. Photo: © State of Queensland (Queensland Corrective Services), CC BY 4.0 Secure by design No learner internet access needed. Facilitator-led demonstrations, offline tools on locked-down devices and printed workbooks, reviewed with each centre's security team. Built for low literacy Voice-first, visual, hands-on. No assumed digital skills. Learners speak to AI before they type to it. Culturally led Co-designed with First Nations advisers and delivered alongside community-controlled organisations wherever possible. Employment-mapped Every module is tied to a job pathway in national employment projections and to local labour markets in each jurisdiction. Measured Pre- and post-program assessment, completion data and post-release outcomes, including return to prison, aligned to the rehabilitation indicators agencies already report. Enterprise-grade leadership More than 25 years leading large technology and transformation programs across government, banking, health and policing. Our leadership has delivered programs for NAB Bupa Queensland Police Service National Heavy Vehicle Regulator Harvey Norman City of Gold Coast ## Six ways to work with us. Program ### For inmates Six levels of AI skills for rehabilitation in prison, from first steps to starting a business. Works offline. Learn more → Program ### For parolees Short, phone-based rehabilitation sessions for people on orders: myGov, finding work and staying on track. Learn more → Program ### For staff Safe, confident AI for case managers, program, education and office staff, and leaders, built around your tools. Learn more → Program ### For officers AI training for custodial and community corrections officers, the front line of rehabilitation. Learn more → Program ### Community corrections Rehabilitation training for community corrections offices: people on orders, officers and staff. Learn more → Courses ### AI Training Six courses for any workplace, from prompting basics to building agents. Learn more → ## Start with one centre. Most agencies begin with a pilot cohort, evaluated against a rehabilitation baseline, before scaling across a region or state. Request a program briefing