Twelve Superintendents of the Force, along with one Australian and 10 Canadian counterparts, attended the classroom phase of the fourth biennial International Executive Development in Policing Program (IEDPP) at the Canadian Police College (CPC) in Ottawa, Canada, from June 17 to 29.

The IEDPP is a 13-month police leadership development program delivered jointly by the CPC and the Hong Kong Police College (HKPC), with three on-line and two classroom phases. This is the first cohort of IEDPP after the programme was accredited at Qualifications Framework Level 6, equivalent to Master's Degree level, by the Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications last December. The program combines experiential on-line learning and international police capacity building, and the participants must meet rigorous academic requirements.

The Force delegation was accompanied by two visiting fellows, namely Deputy Director of HKPC Chan Man-tak and Senior Superintendent of the School of Professional Development Au Wing-leung; as well as the course co-ordinator, Superintendent Paul Hobson of the Management Learning Division. Also joining this classroom phase as visiting fellows were Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Joanne Crampton and Chief Superintendent of the Australian Institute of Police Management Bob Fauser. CPC staff were also in attendance.

During the two-week classroom phase, various Canadian Police Chiefs and academics delivered inspiring and insightful presentations on executive leadership. This facilitated the sharing of policing experience and commonalities among the participants.

A key element of IEDPP is to develop the ability of the participants in leading change. In this regard, each student is required to develop a Strategic Change Project. Under the guidance of academics, the participants adopt evidence-based approaches to integrate theory with practice.

The HKPC will host the final part of IEDPP next April. The participants from Canada and Australia will travel to Hong Kong to continue with workshops and consolidate their learning experience.