Work

The National Occupational Standards and the assessment of student police officers

Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The focus of this thesis is the assessment of student police officers against the National Occupational Standards for policing, which are intended as a common minimum standard of police performance.The work based assessment of student police officers is a relatively recent phenomenon within the police service and came about as part of the requirements of the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme, an initiative designed to modernise police training.The thesis explains these requirements and sets the assessment of student police officers within the national and local assessment contexts as well as a wider policing context.By doing so, this thesis will argue that although there is certain logic with the use of the National Occupational Standards because of their intrinsic link with work-based performance and activity, they are not an adequate measure of a student police officer's competence as they do not cater for alternative views of competence and because they are a means of curriculum control.This will shown through interviews with assessment practitioners, operational police officers and student police officers from a Home Counties constabulary as well as by examining local and national police complaint data, the commendations awarded by the constabulary and letters of appreciation written by members of the public.The thesis will conclude that the National Occupational Standards do not capture the complexity of the policing context or the policing role.Rather than the narrow focus of the National Occupational Standards, the competence of student police officers should actually be seen within a wider range of attributes, skills and knowledge, which are not reflected in the standards themselves.Chapter Two: The National Context-Assessment p.Chapter Three: The National Context-Policing p.Chapter Four: The Local Context-The Organisation p.Chapter Five: The Local Context-the Practitioners p.Chapter Six: Attributes p.Chapter Seven: Skills p.
Author: Andrea Armstrong
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1606532819
Cites: 66
Cited by:
Related to: 10