Sussex Police is one of the first police forces in the country to work with a university to deliver its probationer training.

The Foundation Certificate in Police Studies, developed and delivered by the University of Brighton in collaboration with Sussex Police, marks a dramatic change in the way recruits are trained and reflects the growing trend in employer-led higher education.

The 43-week student officer programme replaces the 12-week residential initial training course. This means that new recruits can now live at home while training and spend a year as a university student.

The impetus for the new course was the 2002 Training Matters report from Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary, which found that, to meet the challenges of 21st century policing, probationer training had to change.

Each year four cohorts (each comprising up to 60 students) of student officers are recruited locally. They study at the University of Brighton’s Falmer and Eastbourne campuses and at the University of Chichester's Bognor campus.

Sussex Police provide the traditional elements of recruit training: the law and aspects of contemporary policing, while the university gives the student officers an insight into applied criminology, psychology and sociology.

Since neighbourhood policing is an important concept for the Sussex Police, the course includes a community placement. This not only provides an understanding of the community and its diversity but also brings students into contact with aspects of society they may not previously have encountered, such as soup kitchens, elderly care homes, troubled housing estates, disability centres and school exclusion units.

Among the first graduate probationers were PC Sarah Churchley, a youth caseworker before joining the Sussex force, who felt that it was “good to learn in bite-sized chunks and then use my knowledge on the ground", and former prison officer PC Vicky Burgess, who said she enjoyed the whole course, “particularly the community placement."

This new training system has attracted significant numbers of women (particularly mothers with young children, who find the university-based system easier to manage than the traditional 12-week residential course) and between a quarter and a half of all students enrolling have a first or masters degree.

Sussex Deputy Chief Constable Geoff Williams  said:  "There are real benefits in conducting initial police training locally, both to our officers who will receive modern, flexible training, and to the educational establishments in terms of new business and fostering important interaction with the police.

"Community placements and experiencing life as a university student will expand student officers' horizons and help to build mutual trust and confidence. Collaboration with the university will also enable officers to achieve a variety of qualifications, including a foundation certificate and foundation degree in police studies. The training is increasingly flexible and will also allow officers to specialise earlier."