How Liam's learning from skills and experience helped him gain a degree
Liam was a police sergeant when he applied for the BSc programme. He had nine years’ experience ranging from response constable, custody officer and safer neighbourhood sergeant. At the time of his application he was a sergeant on a response team.
Previous qualifications and prior experience
Liam had 8 GCSEs and 3 A Levels from 1998 and his experience involved a wide range of police activity. In his application Liam described his role as a leader and the need to consider the welfare issues of his staff. Liam had lots of evidence of illustrating his experience of engaging and liaising with the community on intelligence crime prevention and problem solving. Liam had been awarded 4 commendations for his work. Liam’s application to the University outlined a wealth of experience he had used for his own development. He demonstrated his pursuit of continuous development and provided clear evidence of this in his application form.
He received 180 credits and demonstrated his learning through a portfolio required as part of the programme. This ultimately meant entering a 6 year part time degree half way through the programme and completing the degree in a total of 3 years. Liam was able to evidence an excellent understanding of police issues and the role of the community in policing. He understood the use of information and evidence to think critically about policing problems and described in a very reflective way the need to look after employees.
Outcomes personally
Liam graduated in 2016 and is now enrolled on an MSc in policing (by research) on social media and policing and has been successful in obtaining a bursary to support his studies through the College of Policing.
Outcomes for the organisation
Liam’s dissertation examined the effectiveness of youth diversionary schemes in the desistance from crime. The findings have been communicated to the Crime Prevention and Territorial Police Capability group who work with youth diversionary schemes such as ‘Kickz’. As a consequence of Liam’s studies he also applied his academic learning to real world problems in his everyday work. He has also established an operation to tackle street drinking in Greenford. As a result of the operation there were significant reductions in alcohol related ASB and repeat calls from members of the public while local public satisfaction and confidence increased.
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Short Credit Bearing Learning Modules
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