Former construction worker Luke Martin, 29, explains how he’s using his skills to help people in prison build a future for themselves, brick by brick

Just like thousands of other teachers across the UK, Luke Martin starts his day by taking the register, printing out activities and setting his learners practical tasks. But unlike most other teachers, the skills his students are learning include how to build and plaster walls – and at the end of each day, instead of heading home, they return to their wings at HMP Fosse Way in Leicester.

“The prison industries department, which is where all our construction-based workshops take place, doesn’t look how you might expect it to,” says Martin, who lives in Leicester with his wife and their two children. “It’s a separate building to the rest of the prison, next to another block that houses education studies like maths, English and art. People might assume it isn’t a very nice place to work, but it’s got the atmosphere of a modern college or university rather than a prison.”