Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (Level 6)

The Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship offers unique learning and practice opportunities that will enable your officers to deliver a high-quality service in their communities.

Developed through partnership with local constabularies, it directly reflects local and national policing priorities. As well as exploring everyday policing issues, your officers will investigate future challenges, crime trends and technological advances.

The programme is informed by leading research and draws together expertise from across UWE Bristol – from criminology and law, to forensic science and nursing.

Who is the Police Constable Apprenticeship for?

This programme is open to those joining the Police service as Police Constables. These staff should still be recruited through the SEARCH framework, but the University will work with and support forces to develop an aligned and bespoke recruitment process to meet their needs.

The programme will develop your officers with the knowledge, skills and behaviours to enable an efficient and effective workforce to make a real difference to communities.

The academic programme typically takes three years to complete and consists of 11 modules.

Delivery of the taught elements of the programme is flexible, and we will work with you to tailor delivery to suit your organisational needs. Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements.

Indicative content

Year one

• Occupational Competencies: Policing Conduct (40 credits)
• Craft Skills: A Foundation (40 credits)
• Understanding Vulnerability and Investigation (40 credits)

Year two

• Occupational Competencies: Professional Policing (30 credits)
• Craft Skills: Ethics and Communication (30 credits)
• Investigating Vulnerability and Risk (30 credits)
• Becoming an Evidence Based Practitioner (30 credits)

Year three

• Critiquing the Evidence Basis (30 credits)
• Consolidating Craft Skills (30 credits)
• Evidence Based Policing Research Project (40 credits)
• Occupational Competencies: Reflective Development (20 credits)

Teaching will typically combine classroom-based lectures, seminars and workshops with periods of on-the-job learning. Learners will be assessed through a range of formats, including coursework, examinations, simulations, portfolios, vivas and presentations.

Successful learners on this apprenticeship will achieve a degree in Professional Policing Practice.

The College of Policing have determined that this programme meets the PCDA (Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship) National Programme Specification core requirements.

The Apprenticeship Standard entry requirements vary from force to force. There are various routes into this programme, including 104 A-level tariff points. The University welcomes those with alternative qualifications and we can provide credit for prior experience.

Successful completion of the apprenticeship requires the apprentice to hold approved Level 2 qualifications in English and Maths prior to taking the End Point Assessment (EPA). Where apprentices do not hold these on entry, funding is available (- see Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) guidelines), to enable achievement of the qualifications during the course of the apprenticeship.

Please note: Prospective students may only apply for a degree apprenticeship through their employer. If you are interested in any of our degree apprenticeship programmes, speak to your employer in the first instance.

There is funding available to sponsor employees’ professional development on degree apprenticeships. We will work with your employer directly to manage your application.

The Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship will enable your officers to better serve their community by giving them the tools they need to proactively deal with everyday challenges. As the course integrates theory with real-life operational practice, your staff will be able to apply their learning to their day-to-day professional activities from the start of the programme. This might include applying models of crime prevention or using reflective practice.

This apprenticeship is based on evidence-based policing, which is referenced throughout the programme. Learners will be introduced to the importance of critical thinking, and equipped with the skills and knowledge to pursue life-long learning.

Training will be delivered through methods that suit you and your officers, which is supported by our virtual learning environment and extensive online resources.

Our diverse, committed staff base of talented policing and criminology lecturers and criminal justice practitioners have an enviable track record when it comes to delivering quality practice-orientated qualifications.

Throughout the programme, your employees will have access to industry-standard facilities and simulations. These include a simulation house, where learners can practise gaining access and collecting evidence, and law courts where they can experience cross-examination.

Participating in projects with training paramedics and forensic scientists will prepare your officers for multi-agency working. And simulation facilities such as our functioning ambulance will allow them to experience emergency scenarios in as realistic a way as possible.

To find out more about the course, or for more information about the levy, funding available and degree apprenticeships, please email our Degree Apprenticeships Team at apprenticeships@uwe.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)117 328 4888.

If you are a disabled Police Constable Degree Apprentice, you are advised to tell both Avon and Somerset Constabulary and UWE Bristol that you are disabled so that reasonable adjustments can be considered.

Disabled Apprentices