 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
JPO courses revamped
 Line to take: Officers participate in the course on public speaking |
The Junior Police Officers Continuation and Promotion Training Division are offering revised promotion and development courses to qualified officers. Under the new arrangements which started April 1, the Sergeant 10th Year Development Course and the Station Sergeant Third Year Development Course were cancelled while the remaining five development and promotion courses for Police Constables to SSGTs were revamped.
JPO Continuation and Promotion Superintendent Chau Ping-sun said: "The revamp came from a comprehensive review of previous courses in March last year in which we had hoped to streamline them by cancelling overlapping and ineffective contents, making them more needs-oriented and cost-effective." SP Chau said JPO Association representatives and formation commanders consulted were supportive and felt it unnecessary to keep the two scrapped courses.
Force Training Officer SP Simon Leung Chi-fai said: "SGTs with 10 years service and SSGTs with three have already gained considerable experience from day-to-day work and should have completed a number of training courses provided by the Force. Therefore, they are able to benefit from self-learning through various channels.
"Training opportunities such as Formation Training Days abound and some contents overlap with our promotion and development courses. So we took out those overlapping topics making them more concise with greater emphasis on practical exercises."
SP Leung said the revamp allowed the Division to better utilise resources in providing more tailor-made training. The courses were revised taking into consideration the needs of different ranks. For the PC Fifth Year Development Course, emphasis was put on brushing up front-line Uniform Branch officers' skills in handling a wide variety of day-to-day work. Elementary knowledge in management as well as organisational skills were also introduced into the PC 10th Year Development Course.
For newly-promoted SGTs, the course stresses their change of role while offering all-round training on management and administration skills and assessment of subordinates.
The Development Course for SGTs with five years of service would include a management concept revision series and further equip them for promotion to SSGT.
The SSGT Promotion Course would include more advanced training on management topics.
Furthermore, a one-week Civil Service Training and Development Institute management course was adopted and some topics previously covered in the SSGT Third Year Development Course were also included to make it more complete and in-depth.
The Division would regularly review the courses and liaise with formation commanders and officers to gauge their needs to ensure courses are up to expectations. SP Chau said: "We request all course instructors take a proactive approach in research work and the production of teaching materials, in addition to their teaching duties and maintaining a close relationship with students."
Computerised questionnaires were also now given to students to complete at the end of each lesson for instant processing and feedback.
"We will also consider offering one or two-day courses and seminars on special topics for officers Force-wide," SP Chau added.