Five students from Brooke Weston Academy were selected to take part in a work experience programme at Northamptonshire Police, when they saw many different aspects of the Force’s operation, including the Dog Section and Force Control Room.
The week-long course took place at Force Headquarters and Alfie Ashford, Erin Blaikie, Trixie De Guzman, Navjot Dhassi and Emma Ray, from Brooke Weston Academy all took part, along with other Year 10 students from schools across the county.
Nicole Degg, the Specials & Volunteers Recruitment & Development Officer, said: ‘This was an exciting opportunity for your students to meet officers and staff who are experts in their different areas of business such as the Force Control Room, Counter Terrorism, Learning & Development, Dog Section and News and Communications.A total of 23 students from six schools took part. On the final day they completed a full investigation around a missing person (MISPER) and most of the week’s activities featured elements around MISPERs to help them with the final investigation. 'Next year we are looking to target older students, maybe Year 12s whoare more focused on what they want to do when they leave school. We will open applications around January and contact all of the schools to put forward a selection of students. They can expect a formal selection process next year as numbers will be lower and we would specifically like to target those that are thinking of joining the Police.’
Trixie said: ‘It was really fun. We learned a lot and got a lot of information. I liked seeing the firearms and the dogs were very engaging; the officers showed us how they trained them. We visited a different department each day. I am now thinking about a career in the police.’
Navjot said: ‘I applied because I thought it would be a bit different and it would look good on your CV. Also I wanted to know about different jobs and roles. I liked seeing how the dogs are more efficient than human, for example in tasks like sniffing out drugs. We were also given real life examples of cases to solve. That was interesting and it involved a missing persons enquiry, a number plate recognition case and cyber-crime. It was fun because we were put in different teams so we weren’t always with people from our school and it has swayed my mind a bit about joining the profession.’
Emma said: ‘My favourite task was when we had to bag up evidence and the team that did the best got awarded. We also saw one of the police dog puppies that is in training. I wanted to work with the dog section for a while so it was a good insight. They were sniffing for drugs, money and a weapon and the dog found a gun that we didn’t find. I would recommend this to other people if they are interested in a career with the police.’
Brooke Weston Trust’s careers adviser, Clare Scott said: ‘The students had to go through a rigorous application process to apply. We were only meant to have three allocated places, so we were fortunate that this opportunity was given to five of our students. They learned a great deal and to see behind the scenes gave a real insight into the career routes available in the police service. If anyone is interested in knowing more about work experience like this, or in other professions they can email me on cscott@brookeweston.org and I can keep them updated on forthcoming opportunities.’