An IBEC official had an attentive audience last week as he encouraged a group of men to enter the workforce. His address was not at a graduate fair or a recruitment evening but at a prison in west Dublin.

"This is an opportunity for business and it's a clear opportunity for you. Getting a job is the biggest single thing you could do to change your life," Mr Brendan Butler, director of social policy at IBEC, told the gathering at Wheatfield Prison. "Employers at the moment are finding it increasingly difficult to find staff. The Government estimates that in six years, over 200,000 jobs in Ireland will not be filled. "The timing of the initiative we're promoting today couldn't be better," he said.

The assistant governor at Wheatfield, Mr Derek Tracey, said staff at the prison had looked beyond the statistics of crime with successful in-house training and their employment placement initiative, which this year has placed more than 40 men - all in the final 12 months of their sentences.

"Prisoners give up their recreational time to complete the work for their certificates," said Mr Tracey. "You don't expect prisoners to give prison a good name but it happens here."

Mr Pat Delaney, director of the Small Firms Association, was also among visitors to the prison last week for the presentation of donations from the prisoners to charitable organisations. Twenty-five of the men were also awarded qualifications certified by bodies such as the City and Guilds in London or the Eastern Regional Health Authority.

"Printing, welding, typing, food hygiene . . . there is a huge demand for all those skills in small businesses across the country, which are having a huge difficulty in recruiting and simply can't get staff.

"In fact, we estimate 64,000 new entrants are needed right now," Mr Delaney said.

Darren (22), who will be released next month after serving four years, said he was introduced to printing at Wheatfield.

"I want to get a job and my own place and set myself up. I know if I don't get work, I'll only start robbing again." Andrew (34), serving a nine-month sentence, said he had compiled a portfolio of his welding and fabrication work and was anxious to get a job, but was worried he would be underpaid.

"I've got five welding certificates and I don't see why I should get paid less than anyone else just because I'm coming out of prison," he said.

Ms Sinead de Roithe, Wheat field's employment and training officer, said she worried about exploitation when she began placing men, but not now.

"They go in at the same level and are treated like everyone else. I have employers on to me all the time saying how well things are working out and how they want another lad," she said.

Ms de Roithe believes the Government should provide incentives to employers to take on inmates and prisoners should be given benefits, such as the medical card, that accrue to those on the back-to-work scheme for the long-term unemployed. The men are granted temporary release to take up their placements, which to date have included jobs in the computer and catering industries, in semistate companies, construction companies and as apprentices. "The condition is that they produce a pay slip at the main gate of the prison every week until their release date to prove they've been working," she said.

She confirmed two men had returned to prison. "The first man was highly institutionalised and he just couldn't make it and another slipped back into drugs, but they are a small minority."

One employer in a large semistate company, who did not wish to be named to protect the anonymity of his worker, described the prisoner placed with his company as "terrific, a great worker". "He was initially employed on a three-month contract and now we've offered him a year. To be honest, if I can succeed with just one of these lads I'll be happy that I did something positive with my job here in HR [human resources]," he said.

Another employer in a large computer firm, who also declined to be identified, said her company's placement from Wheatfield had recently moved into a position of greater responsibility and had been made a full-time member of staff.

"That's not something we do lightly with anyone and he achieved it in less than six months, which is good going," she said. Wheatfield has forged ahead with its own employment programme, which is managed by The Foundation for Business in the Community project, but there are plans to bring schemes to all 17 prisons in the State under an umbrella programme, Connect, over the next three years. On November 1st, the Government announced funding of £46 million (€58.4 million) over six years for the project, which is being piloted in the Mountjoy complex. The programme, which offers a staged programme towards release, has resulted in 20 prisoners getting jobs.

Ms Paula Lawlor, manager of the Connect project, said it would be introduced into Cork, Limerick, Castlerea, St Patrick's and Wheatfield prisons in the new year.

"When we enter each prison we carry out research on what services are already available and identify any gaps in the system. In the case of Wheatfield, we will be linking in to the existing programme, but very few prisons offer anything," she said.

According to Ms Lawlor, a survey carried out by Connect showed more than half the 56 employers in Dublin who responded were willing to take part in a placement programme.

"If we provide a placement we will be able to tell an employer he has a conviction for robbery if that is the case. If you hire someone off the street, they might not tell you they have a conviction for robbery and you might put them handling money. There are always risks, but we have converted it into a calculated risk for employers, allowing them make informed choices," she said.