POLICING could be \u201cclosing the door\u201d to new recruits with life experience who are not academically minded when it becomes a degree only profession.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the view from Steve Taylor, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, after it was announced by the College of Policing that those wanting to be a police officer would need a degree.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s right,\u201d said Steve. \u201cThe police is a reflection of the community it serves, or at least should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve added: \u201cThere are academic standards that we should strive for, a kind of baseline to get officers in so that we\u2019ve got competency and the language, both written and oral, so a degree of standards is absolutely proper – but to limit it to only those with the higher end of academic standards is, I think, short sighted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The College of Policing announced in December that future recruits to the police service will need a degree \u2013 although forces will be able to hire non-graduates and pay for them to complete a policing degree on the job.<\/p>\n
Steve, who has a degree in International Politics and Strategic Studies added that \u201cI can honestly say it\u2019s never helped me on a Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes it make me a better officer by having the degree? No, no it doesn\u2019t make me a better officer, it just demonstrates that I\u2019ve got academic skill in certain areas and as we know we\u2019re not just about academic proficiency.<\/p>\n
\u201cA good officer has a range of skills, and not all of them easily measurable by whether or not you\u2019ve got a degree or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve did reserve some praise for plans for ongoing professional qualifications for officers but questioned why officers need a degree to join the job when they can get one on the job.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe College of Policing are looking at converting the skills that we have into a recognisable degree level standard for those of us that are already in policing. Now that, I think, can only be a good thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re able to demonstrate and recognise that the skills that we build and have in policing and worthy of qualifications and a degree – why do you need a degree in the first place?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can demonstrate you\u2019re up to the degree standard and you\u2019ve joined the service without a degree, you don\u2019t need the degree to join the service, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POLICING could be \u201cclosing the door\u201d to new recruits with life experience who are not academically minded when it becomes a degree only profession. That\u2019s the view from Steve Taylor,\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3248,"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\/3247"}],"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=3247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3249,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247\/revisions\/3249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}