Every donation can help someone leave prison with a qualification and hope for the future. Plus, to double the impact, your donations will be matched up to £10,000, thanks to a generous trust.
You can also make a donation over the phone on 020 3752 5680 or send a cheque to: Prisoners’ Education Trust, The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR
Andy was at one of the lowest points in his life when he discovered PET. He had struggled with gambling for most of his life, causing difficulties with debt and drinking that had led to a prison sentence.
Andy wanted to dig deeper into his life and understand more about himself so started the Understanding Addiction Level 2 Certificate with PET.
Prison put every one of my triggers in front of me: boredom, low self-worth, lack of purpose, lack of drive. Those things would drive me to need to gamble, because then I’d forget about everything going on.
But when those course books landed and I knew I had a purpose the next day – to be able to get up and get on with some work, to actually achieve something that I could be proud of – honestly, it changed the whole outlook.
In prison – with the governor’s support – he set up gambling peer support groups, but he wanted to understand more about drugs and alcohol because of the links with gambling. He approached PET for Drug and Alcohol Counselling Level 3.
That course gave me such a drive that, as soon as I finished it, the prison’s Distance Learning Coordinator Linda said, ‘Well, what about another one?’ So I went on to do Level 3 Agile Project Management with PET.
Andy left prison with a collection of certificates and the determination to support other people who had difficulties with gambling.
He now works for Beacon Counselling Trust, delivering gambling awareness and prevention training to serving personnel, veterans, families and the wider armed forces community. You can read Andy’s full story here.
It may look as though it’s just a level two or level three qualification, but it’s not. It’s far, far more than that. That person, when they pass that module, they realise, ‘I am capable of it’.
Thank you for your generosity that impacts the lives of so many learners like Andy and supports people in prison on their journey of finding hope, drive and recovery.
© Prisoners' Education Trust 2025
