More and more secondary schools are signing up for the NCEA L3 Police Pathways Programme.
Programme lead Vinesh Sima says 50 schools have signed up this year across eight districts, up from nine in 2019. The course was successfully piloted in two Rotorua schools in 2018.
Supplementing existing recruitment initiatives like the New Cops website and career expos, it introduces students to the roles and responsibilities of Police.
Through the year they are exposed to modules such as mental health and the community, basic interviewing, understanding law and legislation in different situations - and embark on what can be a very different approach to fitness for some.
Three quarters of those from the Rotorua pilot completed their police studies and two followed through with applications. Vinesh thinks the course completion rate has increased from last year and that Police should shortly start to see more applications come through.
He says a lot of work has gone into growing the programme, and in making sure districts have the support and tools the need to best engage with local schools.
The programme is led and delivered by schools, and districts can choose how and when they offer input and support. And that doesn’t necessarily come just from School Community Officers, Vinesh says, with youth engagement and community staff also involved in some places.
“It’s clearly an idea whose time has come,” he says. “It’s very popular in some districts.”
In Tāmaki Makaurau, 14 schools are offering the course – up from three last year. There is double last year’s number in Wellington, and new entrants in Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Eastern and Central.
In Eastern District the programme is overseen by Sergeant Greg Macklow. He has four schools involved, and others are waiting to see how 2020 goes.
The programme started with a family hui, which generated a great vibe and lots of thoughtful questions, Greg says. Next up, in Hastings on 10 March, is an event for students involved in the programme which introduces personnel covering 20 workstreams to help cover the career pathways part of the curriculum.
Representatives of Dog Section (of course), AOS, other specialist staff and mainstream workgroups will stay on as the Pathways showcase gives way to a public recruiting event - click here for details (Facebook page).
“We’ve had great buy-in from our staff and their enthusiasm and love of policing should rub off on the potential recruits.”
As well as helping cement existing relationships with secondary schools and their rangitahi, the programme is also an investment in the future.
“I’m at what you could call the back end of my career,” says Greg. “I see getting good recruits on board as vital to how Police will flourish into the future. Hawke’s Bay is where my kids and my grandkids live – I want them to have a well-policed community.
“I think it’s a brilliant initiative. Everybody is trying to get the best talent, and this will help identify and secure people earlier. We are about growing our recruits and not just harvesting them. It will be so interesting to see how it plays out.”
Vinesh is in no doubt. “We have set ourselves some targets to have more than 30 students enter the organisation as either recruits or employees in early 2021 and I believe this is very realistic."
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Interested in a Police career? Go to https://www.newcops.co.nz/ to find out more.