Five years ago, Scott Sinclair was ordered to carry out 250 hours of community service after he was caught stealing from his employer.
Scott's punishment involved refurbishing a skate park, gardening at an old people's home and completing a skills based course at Forth Valley College.
Says Scott, now 25, "The conviction completely destroyed my life at the time. I was in a bad place and thought community service was a waste of time. Manual labour seemed pointless and the course was pretty basic. But, I knew that stealing wasn't something I wanted to keep doing."
Fresh Start, the course specifically designed for offenders, includes three, ten week modules in problem solving, literacy and numeracy. Falkirk's community service team recognised the need to help offenders increase their confidence and employability, and encourage positive links from a life beyond offending.
Continues Scott, "As it turns out, the course showed me that I still had brains in my head and that I could use them and actually do something with myself and my life. We learned how to put together a CV and I eventually found someone willing to take a chance on me and found a job."
After working as a bar man at Airth Castle and receiving positive feedback from both managers and customers, Scott decided to pursue a qualification in hospitality management. Says Scott, "I really started to enjoy hospitality and was told that I had the right attitude and good potential to progress. So I decided to go back to Forth Valley College to do a course."
Since starting his HND in Hospitality Management, Scott has received awards in excellence for his work and volunteering. Last month he spent three days on a specialist hospitality course in Switzerland - one of nine students chosen from across Scotland to take part.
He added, "It was amazing. I never thought I'd be doing what I'm doing. I love hospitality and plan to work hard and become an events manager of some sort.
"If I rewind my life back five years it looks completely different. I had a lot of personal trauma in my life, low self esteem and was caught stealing. Although I didn't think so at the time I can now see how community service helped put me back on the right track."
Falkirk's community service team identified from induction interviews that roughly 60% of offenders had problems in literacy, numeracy and problem solving. Team manager, Mary Hamilton explains, "It's not that they couldn't read or write, but more that literacy, numeracy, and, especially problem solving, could be improved. We recognised that these deficits were barriers to employment.
"Our team discussed ways to address this. Our aim was to reduce reoffending and to show the effectiveness of adding a development or learning based element into community service to improve the outcome for the person, and the community at large.
"There were many barriers and challenges to overcome to ensure all parties were happy with our proposal, and that we were working in accordance with National Standards and Guidance. All of these were overcome and Fresh Start was introduced.
"We have received informal and anecdotal feedback that positively supports Fresh Start. We now recognise that a more formal monitoring process is required to determine the programme's success."
Education options have been included within the revised National Guidance for the Community Payback Order. Offenders may be required to complete 30 hours or 30% of their order working on skills to increase employability.