All officers 'should have degrees'

Homer01

One one hand I can see where they are going, on the other hand way to cut your potential recruitment base.

A paper doesn't necessarily make you better at the role hence the assessment centres.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34805856

onethreefive

Having a degree does prove that your willing to put in a lot of work into whatever it is your doing but I don't think it should be something which not having excludes people from applying.

Johannes_Cabal

If they do bring it in, I can imagine it will only apply to Home Office police forces...at first anyway.

Having a specific policing degree will almost immediately exclude many older applicants from applying, as in my case I can't just drop everything to complete a full-time degree for X amount of years, rack up X amount of debt only to be finished and told they aren't recruiting for X amount of years.

Personally I think having initial training as a baseline for the degree and then officers complete the full thing over their probation period would be better than having it as an initial requirement.

MikeOneJuliet

Johannes_Cabal wrote: »

If they do bring it in, I can imagine it will only apply to Home Office police forces...at first anyway.

Having a specific policing degree will almost immediately exclude many older applicants from applying, as in my case I can't just drop everything to complete a full-time degree for X amount of years, rack up X amount of debt only to be finished and told they aren't recruiting for X amount of years.

Personally I think having initial training as a baseline for the degree and then officers complete the full thing over their probation period would be better than having it as an initial requirement.

You'll be far too busy in your probation to worry about a degree. Personally it's a pathetic idea. It proves nothing. A lot of people go to university and do bare minimum for 3 years. Others get a full time job and work their backside off. You gain a diploma in policing during GV and that should be more than sufficient.

We were visited by Candian recruits during our training. They were shocked at how our system works. Before they can apply for the police they must have some kind of law degree, the degree teaches them all the theory behind the law (like GV does), they then apply to the police for th practical training. They pay for this all themselves. They wished their system was the same as ours.

Mop a top

Well that would totally rule me out. It was financial constraints that made me leave uni before finishing it, not the lack of being able to stick at it or work at it as onethreefive's comment suggests :-/ however I couldn't see how some obscure degree (there are some I know and they're not all obscure I'm only saying this as an example) would suggest that the graduate could do the job better than me.

I can see pros to it but at the same time in my personal opinion I know my life experience would be much greater use to being a constable than any degree. I agree with JC too, it would wipe out us "older" applicants and I certainly couldn't afford time and money to complete a degree anytime soon to gain entry to PSNI. Also I thought they're wanting applicants representing all people of the community, not everyone has a degree so it goes against that idea too.

The only thing I think having a degree in PSNI would help you with would be at hotel GV, I imagine it's very much like being back at uni, but one where you actually get in **** if you skip lectures lol.

Just for clarity I'm not in anyway shape or form suggesting that degrees are a waste of time or useless, they certainly have their place in certain professions but in this case my personal opinion is that they would be unnecessary to gain entry to PSNI. Besides aren't you able to work towards some kind of degree after hotel GV or did I hear wrong?

WannabePC

Do mainland forces not require all applicants to have a Diploma in Policing Studies before they can apply? Could of sworn I seen that somewhere. I don't think running a course like that here in public would be in the best interest of safety either considering the only reason you would do it is to join the po po.

.S.

In order to pass out of GV as a constable you will attain a level 5 qualification, UK Forces all offer only level 3 or level 4. The PSNI diploma is at a higher level than any UK police service. I'm not sure of their entry requirements however.

In my opinion I don't think having a degree should be made a necessity for entry. There are fantastic officers with degrees. There are fantastic officers without. Applicants should continue to be judged on merit. That's my thoughts on it anyway!

Breaking bad

Mop a top wrote: »

Well that would totally rule me out. It was financial constraints that made me leave uni before finishing it, not the lack of being able to stick at it or work at it as onethreefive's comment suggests :-/ however I couldn't see how some obscure degree (there are some I know and they're not all obscure I'm only saying this as an example) would suggest that the graduate could do the job better than me.

I can see pros to it but at the same time in my personal opinion I know my life experience would be much greater use to being a constable than any degree. I agree with JC too, it would wipe out us "older" applicants and I certainly couldn't afford time and money to complete a degree anytime soon to gain entry to PSNI. Also I thought they're wanting applicants representing all people of the community, not everyone has a degree so it goes against that idea too.

The only thing I think having a degree in PSNI would help you with would be at hotel GV, I imagine it's very much like being back at uni, but one where you actually get in **** if you skip lectures lol.

Just for clarity I'm not in anyway shape or form suggesting that degrees are a waste of time or useless, they certainly have their place in certain professions but in this case my personal opinion is that they would be unnecessary to gain entry to PSNI. Besides aren't you able to work towards some kind of degree after hotel GV or did I hear wrong?

I agree with this. I left school as I had to support my family and bring a wage into the house and didn't have the luxury of going to Uni etc. I have worked my ass off in every job I've been in since and gained invaluable experience along the way and went up the ranks. I would love to go back and study but I'm hoping that opportunity will be with the PSNI and I can use the points gained in getting the Level 5 to go on and further enhance my skills. From taking a big pay cut to join the Police will make that process a bit longer though:D

Mop a top

It will all work out, eventually BB

Life_On_Mars

The way in which a degree is introuduced may not be as crude as some suggest. Some universities do a Degree in Policing and completion of the level 5 qualification would surely be used as accreditation of previous learning and go a long way towards gaining a degree.

Further modules gained over a period of years would build towards a qualification and this is now commonplace in work based apprenticeships in some of the larger and more reputable firms. Job or degree is no longer a binary choice.

It would be interesting to see whether this is slowly introduced after all forces reduced their starting pay last year following the report stating that starting pay was too high compared to graduate proffessions.

Joe789

Some UK forces require you to have a Certificate in Knowledge of Policing. Will set you back an average of £1000! It lasts for 3 years, and you must have it before being offered a position.

Bit of a joke in my opinion. Not everyone will have that sort of money to study for a qualification which you may not get a job out of at the end. It is basically to save costs with training for the Police Forces which require it.

Homer01

Am I right in thinking GV already does this?


All new police officers in England and Wales to have degrees - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38319283

usernameunkown

Through GV you get a Diploma in policing in conjunction with Ulster University, the only requirement upon entry is still the few GCSEs they ask for

dollasign

Its just another stupid change for the sake of change. For some big fat Supernintendo and their stupid college of policing to justify their existence and funding. Its a stupid idea, you can not learn policing from books. You learn policing from seeing it up close and doing it.

D4z

Life_On_Mars

The Police could make a statement here by waiving tuition costs or giving bursary. This would encourage high quality graduates to consider Policing. You do not need a degree to be a good Police Officer, but things change and in the modern workplace a degree is seen as some kind of entry standard to a profession. In Germany they have a three year Uni course. On graduation you are a Police Officer in a similar way to Nurses in U.K. If this is to work it will need to be a well thought out holistic and joined up series of Policies and this is where I feel it will fall down. The Windsor report led to a 25% pay cut for recruits as we were a non graduate profession. I can assume this will now be reversed then? The cynic in me says not.

Banterbus28

The Patten report clearly states that the police needs to be representative of society and community realities.

How can a police force that requires recruits to have a degree be representative of a community were only 49.2% of young people aged between 18-21 are enrolled in higher education?

Policing just like the ambulance service, fire and rescue service and the armed forces have always been professions that you could attain without going to university.

I think it is a ridiculous concept and will bite the police services of the UK in the ass when, if implemented, they realise that they have just cut diversity in their work force.

Diversity is good, evolution proves as much.