Education 'Key To Police Challenge'

Thu, 09 September 2010 Courtesy of: Police Oracle

Academic institutions are poised to play a greater role in the development of officers in years to come, the head of the National College of Police Leadership has said.

Addressing the inaugural Higher Education Forum for Learning and Development in Policing at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston DCC Alf Hitchcock stressed the highest quality leaders would be needed in tough times ahead.

And he maintained that his organisation and higher education institutions would need to be closely aligned to address the looming difficult situation.

“The world and the Police Service have moved on and we are in better shape in terms of our people than we ever have been before.”

DCC Hitchcock said: “With the challenges that we now face, we need our staff to be of the highest quality they have ever been and for our leaders to be even better.

“I think that higher education will play an important part in helping to ensure that business and leadership skills are kept up-to-date and current.”

DCC Hitchcock highlighted that there are already policing-related foundation degrees available and that officers have increasingly benefited from academic courses.

He pointed out that this is in stark contrast to past – the last Royal Commission in 1962 had raised concerns that there were no graduates in police ranks, only 1 per cent had A-Levels and 10 per cent had five or more GCSE equivalent passes.

But now many of those entering the Police Service are educated to A-Level or graduate standard and highly committed to acquiring further qualifications.

DCC Hitchcock told the conference: “The world and the Police Service have moved on and we are in better shape in terms of our people than we ever have been before.

“We have more graduates than ever and more people thinking about their Continual Professional Development and looking to be as good as they can be.”

But with tough economic times, cuts to budgets and recruitment freezes likely to remain for years, DCC Hitchcock warned that retaining the right people with the right skills will be vital, and that personnel needed to keep up their study. “With all the changes, we have to be in good shape,” he concluded.