A DIRECTORY showing officers and staff how to convert their on-the-job experience into academic certificates will be launched by the College of Policing this summer.<\/p>\n
The Recognised Prior Experience and Learning Directory will help officers build academic credits that can be used towards a qualification.<\/p>\n
The College is planning a national set of qualifications for officers, from a PC degree apprenticeship and a pre-joining policing degree to a postgraduate certificate for inspectors and a master\u2019s apprenticeship for superintendents.<\/span><\/p>\n A spokesman for the College said: \u201cMany officers and staff who provide an excellent service throughout their policing career and develop high-level skills and competencies leave with very little to show for it in terms of externally recognised and transferable qualifications.<\/p>\n \u201cThe directory proposal introduces a means for serving officers and staff to gain accreditation for previous learning and experience in the form of academic credits that could be used as recognised prior learning, to a nationally consistent level, toward academic qualifications.\u201d<\/p>\n He told Police Oracle that work had already begun on the directory and that the College is working to develop a nationally agreed matrix of credit values for learning programmes with the National Policing Curriculum.<\/p>\n \u201cThe College will also initiate further work to explore funding opportunities to support those in the existing workforce who choose to achieve these qualifications,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The qualifications will not be compulsory for officers. Chief Constable Alex Marshall, CEO of the College, has previously said that he wants to preserve the police service\u2019s accessibility as a vocational career for people from all backgrounds, but said he also wants to ensure that the increasingly complex activities undertaken by officers are \u201cproperly recognised\u201d.<\/p>\n