YOU don\u2019t need a degree to become a police officer, Essex Police Federation has said amid claims the service is \u2018dumbing down\u2019 its entry requirements.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
The\u00a0Mail on Sunday<\/i>\u00a0suggested forces across the country are set to ditch fast track graduate schemes and on-the-job police degrees to focus on attracting traditional \u2018blue-collar\u2019 recruits.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
It says they are struggling to find enough potential new officers to fulfil the Government’s pledge to put 20,000 officers back on the beat.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
The National College of Policing has rebuffed the article.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
Essex Police Federation Chair Laura Heggie said having the right personal and life skills as well as being able to relate to people should be on candidates CVs.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cI sit here as someone that doesn\u2019t have a degree, that\u2019s been a police officer for the last 29 years, so I\u2019ll say no you don\u2019t need a degree to be a police officer because I don\u2019t think you do,\u201d she said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked with a lot of people that don\u2019t have great qualifications from school. A lot of it comes down to peoples\u2019 personal skills more than their education. You need someone that\u2019s able to relate to people, that can communicate with people, empathise. You don\u2019t get those things in a book,\u201d she said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cSo I do think you need a degree? No. Can it assist? Yes, but it shouldn\u2019t be a necessity.\u201d<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
Getting a mix of people to properly represent the communities policing serves is critical.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely about getting that mix right,\u201d Laura said.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a place for people for degrees, but it shouldn\u2019t be a requirement. I\u2019m not sure why the College of Policing is going down that route.<\/u><\/u><\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it\u2019s succession planning. Is this the future? Do they see people coming through with degrees are going to make better senior officers? I wouldn\u2019t necessarily agree with that either.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
YOU don\u2019t need a degree to become a police officer, Essex Police Federation has said amid claims the service is \u2018dumbing down\u2019 its entry requirements. The\u00a0Mail on Sunday\u00a0suggested forces across\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":135170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135191,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135009\/revisions\/135191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/135170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}