Where a prison officer can go next
5 destinations recorded, ranked by how much of the target role a prison officer already meets. The closer to the top of Table 1, the less there is to learn.
Prison officers supervise inmates in a correctional facility and ensure the security and peace-keeping in the facility. They perform checks and searches to ensure compliance to regulations, monitor visitations and the activities of inmates as well as participate in programs of rehabilitation, and ensure records maintenance.
Also known as detention officer, corrections officer, gaoler, turnkey, prison warden, prison guard, jailer, prisoner custody officer.
Service and sales workers 29 skills on file 5 career moves 0 above 60% overlap Closest: correctional services manager, 51%
- 70% and above · short step
- 50 to 70% · real move
- Below 50% · substantial retraining
Table 2 · A bigger jump
Possible, but expect real retraining rather than a sideways step.
Table 3 · What the job itself asks for
A prison officer needs 12 required skills and areas of knowledge. These 10 are the ones fewest other jobs share, so they say the most about the work.
- see to the detainees' well-being assisting and caring
- escort defendants assisting and caring
- correctional procedures services
- illegal substances services
- comply with the principles of self-defence assisting and caring
- restrain individuals assisting and caring
- legal use-of-force business, administration and law
- patrol areas assisting and caring
- law enforcement services
- ensure compliance with types of weapons assisting and caring
Table 4 · Jobs that lead here
The reverse view: occupations whose skills already cover much of what a prison officer does. The figure is how much of this job each one brings.
- juvenile correctional officer 83% covered · difficulty 19.4
- court bailiff 64% covered · difficulty 36.1
- prison instructor 59% covered · difficulty 41.1
- police officer 58% covered · difficulty 41.3
- security guard 47% covered · difficulty 50.9
- police inspector 45% covered · difficulty 52.2
- civil enforcement officer 43% covered · difficulty 53.8
- correctional services manager 42% covered · difficulty 54.8
- police detective 40% covered · difficulty 56.7
- coastguard watch officer 28% covered · difficulty 65.8
Look up another occupation
Prison officer is filed under Service and sales workers, ISCO major group 5. The full index lists all ten groups.
How these figures were compiled
Overlap is how much of the target role is already part of a prison officer’s work. It is directional: the figure for the reverse move differs. Every entry above opens the full comparison for that move: what carries over, what is missing, and where to start. The full method.