This week, South Wales Police and Gwent Police welcomed their very first cohort of new recruits under the new Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF). This is a new professional framework for the training of police officers.
New officer recruits will now join either on the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA) or the Degree Holder Entry Scheme (DHEP), which comes as part of national changes to police officer recruitment from the College of Policing – the professional body for the police service in Wales and England.
Working together, the four Welsh forces together became early adopters of the PEQF new initial entry routes, which provides those who want to pursue a career in policing with an opportunity to do so while also gaining a policing degree, or a Diploma in policing thorough the DHEP.
PEQF aims to bring consistent practice in terms of the implementation, assessment and accreditation of initial police training across the 43 forces in England and Wales.
Training for the 75 South Wales Police and 15 Gwent Police recruits will be split between core police officer training by Gwent and South Wales Staff at a joint training location in Bridgend, while also studying for their respective qualifications with the support of their partner University the University of Wales Trinity St David.
Chief Constable Matt Jukes, South Wales Police said: “It gives me real pleasure to welcome our new recruits to the force. This is the start of a brand new programme of development, which will provide them with all of the skills and training they need, while also achieving or further developing their professional qualifications. I wish them every success and very much look forward to seeing how their careers progress with us.
“We are also very proud to have been amongst the first in the country to be able to offer these new routes to join us to potential candidates.
In doing so, we hope to encourage people from a wide variety of backgrounds to consider a career in policing which we believe could help us to become truly representative of the diverse communities we serve.”
Chief Constable Julian Williams, Gwent Police said: “Today (Monday 25th March) marks the start of a brand new training programme for our officers joining the force. The professional training they will receive from our Gwent officers, South Wales Police staff and the University of Wales, Trinity St David will provide them with the skills and knowledge required for policing along with a professionally recognised qualification.
“This experience will enable us to be a profession with a more representative workforce that will align the right skills, powers and experience to meet challenging requirements that officers face on a daily basis.“Policing is exciting, highly challenging and rewarding, and I am delighted that these officers have chosen this as their future career. I’d like to wish them all the very best in their future careers with the force.”
Ceredig Emanuel, Head of Sport, Health & Outdoor Education, University of Wales, Trinity St David.
“Today is an exciting day for all of us, it is the start of a new journey for the new recruits and for us as a partnership with both Gwent and South Wales Police Forces. We start a brand new programme that we have collectively been developing over the last year, to align professional policing practice skills, standards and attributes with academic accreditation and rigour.
“The new recruits will be some of the very first in the country to go through this process, so will be trailblazers for this new era within the Police Qualification & Education Framework and as a University we are proud to be the awarding body in this partnership. Our university’s ethos is about Transforming Education and Transforming Lives, today is an example of doing just that and we wish all the new recruits the very best.”
