POTENTIAL new police recruits need to have more than one avenue available to join the job, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
From July 2022 the only route into policing will be through degree programmes, as the College of Policing plans to require all new recruits to either hold a degree or undertake a three-year degree apprenticeship course while working as an officer.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said there was a place for degrees in policing, but said some of the best officers he had worked with hadn\u2019t been to university.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThere needs to be a mixed approach. There\u2019s nothing wrong with this sort of way of getting people into the police. You could argue we\u2019re more likely to get our future leaders from that pool potentially.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, also, some of the ex-military who are coming to policing haven\u2019t got a degree and they make up some of the best police officers I\u2019ve ever worked with. So I don\u2019t think it should be all degree, but then again I don\u2019t think it should be completely got rid of.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you need to have a two-pronged system. We do this now already. We have direct entry into detectives, which is a different way of coming in, to people who do the degree and then go out on the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo let\u2019s just broaden that approach and then we can capture the bright young talent out there and also get the more mature people who have got life experience, which will be very welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
There has been much debate in policing circles about whether officers need degrees, with Northamptonshire Chief Constable Nick Adderley telling Police Oracle that some graduates had been \u201ca bit taken aback by the role\u201d, not expecting the violence involved and not realising they needed to work nights and weekends.<\/p>\n
He added that a lot of the recruits were \u201cvery, very young\u201d and \u201csadly lacking\u201d in life experience.<\/p>\n