The introduction of the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme (IPLDP) has led to a sea change in the way that student officers or probationers are trained. As of 1 April 2006, all forces in England and Wales became responsible for their own training instead of officers going to regional residential training centres.

Community engagement

Acting on recommendations from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, traditional residential police training has been phased out in favour of in-force training. Training is now more family friendly with officers usually being trained locally while living at home.

Community engagement is another key principle behind IPLDP. Student officers are trained within their own force and, at times, within their own division, particularly for their community placements. This provides officers with a far greater understanding of the needs of the local community in the area that they will ultimately be policing.

Curriculum

Forces are following different qualification routes, such as the foundation degree in policing, or a national vocational qualification (NVQ) at levels three and four in policing. However, student officers need to show that they meet National Occupational Standards, both through completion of exams and demonstrating knowledge in the workplace, to successfully complete their training.

The IPLDP curriculum has been designed in line with National Occupational Standards and has also incorporated requirements from Professionalising the Investigation Process (PIP) level 1 and the race and diversity learning requirement.

The new curriculum has 22 learning modules which are divided into four phases:

Phase 1: Induction
Phase 2: Community Safety and Partnership
Phase 3: Supervised Patrol
Phase 4: Independent Patrol

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Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)

This scheme means that new recruits may be able to use existing qualifications and experience to bypass sections in the IPLDP curriculum. If you think this may apply to you then contact your chosen force for more details.