College Course Offers New Route into Police Careers

City College Norwich, in partnership with Norfolk Constabulary, is trialling a new course offering an alternative entry route for those seeking a career in the police. The Diploma in Policing and Public Safety covers the core knowledge and understanding required of police officers, cutting down the time that new recruits will have to spend as a trainee once they have joined the police force.
 
This innovative model of pre-commencement training offers an alternative to the traditional approach which sees recruits undertaking all of their training after they have been accepted into the police. The key benefit for those taking the course, as well as for the Constabulary itself, is that graduates from the course will be able to progress more quickly to frontline duties after joining.
 
The comprehensive course covers areas including the national context, policing in Norfolk, neighbourhood policing, models and methods of police work, communicating with the public, and equality and diversity issues. To compete the course students attend City College Norwich one day a week for 18 weeks, as well as some time at weekends, combined with home study. Norfolk Constabulary has had a significant input into the design of the course, which sees students having to work through the sorts of real-life scenarios that they would face as serving police officers.      
 
While the Diploma does not guarantee entry to the police force – the students still have to satisfy the same assessment requirements as any other applicant – it provides them with a great chance of successfully doing so. The transferable skills gained from the course also mean that it provides invaluable training for those deciding to progress on to other roles within the police besides that of Police Constable, or wider community safety work, and for progression onto further educational courses.    
 
Dick Palmer, Principal, City College Norwich said: “We are delighted that Norfolk Constabulary has chosen to develop this important new training course with City College Norwich. This is an outstanding example of how employers in any sector, public or private, can now work with the college and benefit from the fact that we now have the ability to develop new qualifications that meet employers’ needs and which also carry national recognition.” 
 
Charlie Hall, Assistant Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary said:
“This program provides potential officers with valuable training which will not only help them if they are successful in their application to the Constabulary but will also help them with whatever they end up doing in life. If an applicant is successful following our standard recruitment procedure, the course will help reduce the time that individual will be in training once they join. This means fully-qualified officers can be posted into Norfolk’s neighbourhoods quicker, rather than spending more time in the classroom.”