Head of LDSC, Senior Force Training Officer Vincent Yeung Fu-yiu, pointed out that the development of modern police training institutes had an orientation towards professionalisation. The objective of LDSC is, through offering comprehensive training support services, to assist the delivery of more professional training programmes in the Force so as to better equip police officers with the required professional knowledge, attitude and skills.

LDSC: Professional Training Consultant

LDSC is manned by a specialist cadre of Force Training Officers, who are in-house training consultants of the Police College. In general, the major support services provided by LDSC include curriculum development, quality assurance, academic accreditation, learning technologies as well as examinations and assessment, etc.

Mr Yeung said: "Take curriculum development as an example. We work with the concerned training provider and provide professional assistance in the areas of training needs analysis, curriculum design, and assessment and review of training methods, including e-learning."

In addition, LDSC also assists training providers in adopting competency-based training, with a view to ensuring trainees, after completing training programmes, develop the attitudes, knowledge and skills required.

Mr Yeung continued: "Regarding enhancement of training quality, we will work out a comprehensive quality assurance framework to govern the whole training process, which includes curriculum design, course delivery and evaluation. In addition, we will monitor and benchmark global trends in training development, and adopt best practices to achieve continuous improvement in our training. We also reinforce training of instructors by organising different kinds of instructor courses, with a view to raising the standard of training quality."

LDSC is also responsible for co-ordinating arrangements for academic accreditation of the training courses of the Force, and promoting close networking with universities and professional institutes. As a matter of fact, apart from the Recruit Police Constable Foundation Training Course, a number of curricula, including Student Instructor Course, have already been accredited to university qualifications. This arrangement aims at giving Force members a clearer path of continuous learning. By enabling officers to obtain different professional qualifications, the Force will become a learning organisation and develop a lifelong learning culture.

Mr Yeung added: "To promote a culture of lifelong learning, LDSC will assist training providers in producing various e-learning packages. These packages can support classroom lectures and enhance the effectiveness of training. This arrangement will help cultivate the culture of self-learning among Force members."

Co-ordinating examinations and assessment within the Force and producing training materials for the "Training Days" are also some of the other major responsibilities of LDSC.

Mr Yeung emphasised: "LDSC will provide a wide range of services for Force members. For example, we are in collaboration with universities to develop psychological competency training. We also provide assistance in incorporating such materials into the contents of our training courses on an incremental basis. The objective of this initiative is to integrate professional psychological knowledge with practical policing experience. This can benefit our officers with enhanced interpersonal skills for their daily operational duties. The other objective is to assist our officers to manage stress arising from police work."

RC: Strengthening Research Capability

Apart from LDSC, RC and CAC are also providing support services in different areas for the Police College.

RC has a major role of co-ordinating all the research activities in the Force and establishing a research database. It also endeavors to promote the sharing of knowledge among Force members.

Head of RC, Force Training Officer May Kwok stressed that development of RC had just started, and there was a long way to go. In future, RC would continue recruiting more research officers to form an internal research team. In the meantime, the Force Library under RC would enhance its services to support the research activities within the Force, and provide more comprehensive learning support to Force members. All these initiatives help facilitate the continuous learning of officers.

CAC: Efficient Administrative Support

CAC is responsible for the overall planning and utilisation of human and financial resources available to the Police College. CAC will, through reorganisation, conduct centralised planning of resource utilisation for, and provide highly efficient administrative support to, the College. CAC strives for ensuring maximum utilisation of resources and consequential enhancement of cost-effectiveness.

To sum up, all support formations are mainly responsible for provision of services, not directly related to training but conducive to ensuring continuous provision of quality professional training.

Head of Research Centre, FTO May Kwok (first left) with staff of the centre

Head of Learning Development Support Centre, SFTO Vincent Yeung Fu-yiu