GETTING their hands dirty has helped turn around the lives of offenders not yet hardened to a life of crime.

For four years Bovington Tank Museum has taken on people serving Community Punishment Orders for low-level crime.

Once a week they spend a morning working on tanks before attending lessons given by a Weymouth College lecturer.

The offenders are often young and may have low literacy and numeracy skills but some interest in engineering.

They can gain English and maths qualifications as well as an NVQ in engineering during their time at the museum.

Lisa Adams, 20, from Poole, serving 100 hours of community punishment, has achieved level 2 in English and maths.

She said: "I think this has helped, meeting new people.

"I was hanging around with the wrong sort of people before."

Samantha McIntosh, 18, from Weymouth, is doing 140 hours and has gained a GCSE in maths and English.

Workshop manager Mike Hayton said: "My first thought before they came here was that they should go to Portland cracking rocks!

"But now I think totally differently. We've had some real success stories."

Mike Thomas, unit manager for Dorset's community service, said: "It's a balance between punishment and rehabilitation."

This partnership between Bovington Tank Museum, Weymouth College and the Dorset Probation Service has won the Dorset Criminal Justice Award for Partnership of the Year for outstanding contribution to working with offenders.

It is now up against two other partnerships for the national Justice Award, to be judged on October 25.

First published: October 21