Vocational training in higher education: a case study of work‐based learning within the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)

Abstract

The pre‐eminence of knowledge and skills as the sources of wealth creation and economic growth is one of the major issues in business at the beginning of the twenty‐first century. As a result, Human Resource Development has been propelled into a central role in management thinking. However, this has not always been reflected in practice since many of the methodologies for monitoring and assessment continue to reflect the previous importance of fixed capital, the industrial society and the quantity of labour employed. The police service like other public services has had to ensure that its staff is skilled to undertake an ever more complex role within society. This has traditionally been delivered through typical organisational training processes. The value of learning as opposed to training is rarely proposed. The ‘soft’ benefits of education, elements like critical thinking and emotional intelligence as well as learning, are rarely given sufficient emphasis. However, increasingly organisations are realizing the benefits of creating an open environment that allows informal learning to flourish. This article will explore the concepts of traditional training within policing before reviewing as a case study the introduction of a work‐based and experiential learning paradigm within police development.