Professional Policing Degree

The Professional Policing Degree route into policing is an exciting opportunity for talented individuals from all backgrounds who have already completed or will shortly complete the licenced degree in Professional Policing.

It is designed specifically to utilise the knowledge individuals have gained while completing the Degree in Professional Policing at university before joining Avon and Somerset.

Our police officers are often the first people that members of the public meet when they contact us for help and will respond to a wide variety of incidents such as theft, complaints of anti-social behaviour, domestic violence and assault.

As a police officer you will:

• respond to emergency calls for assistance from the public
• meet and support multiple individuals in any given shift
• understand the needs of individuals to assess immediate risks and that the appropriate steps to protect members of our communities from harm
• engage with individuals from all backgrounds
• demonstrate your ability to adapt to the needs of the current situation and communicate with empathy and genuine compassion
• work well under pressure
• demonstrate resilience whilst working in a dynamic environment
• focus on delivering a positive result and adapting to new developments

Our officers use their professional judgement to ensure that everyone who contacts us receives the correct support every time, whether this is required in the short or longer term.

Your role as a police officer will allow you to challenge yourself, develop your leadership skills and make a difference to the lives of those that you have supported by helping them when it is needed most.

Read how Pola turned her volunteering role into a career when she joined us as a police constable working in the response team.

Candidates joining through the Professional Policing Degree route will commence on pay point one of the police constable pay scales. This will increase annually on the anniversary of your joining date.

• Year 1 (pay point 1): £28,551
• Year 2 (pay point 2): £29,751

As a police officer, you will be contracted to work 40 hours per week and both your classroom and on-the-job training aligns to these working hours.

While in tutorship and working as an operational police officer, you will work to a 24/7 shift pattern consisting of:

• two early shifts (07:00-16:00)
• two late shifts (14:30-23:00) and
• two nights (22:00-07:00) followed by rest days

Flexible working patterns will be considered against the requirements of service delivery but periods of learning delivery will be in 40 hour week blocks.

In your first 6 weeks, you will undertake personal protection training, driver training, system training as well as classroom learning based at Police Headquarters.

After this initial period, you will enter into tutorship working with a 24/7 response team to put your acquired skills and knowledge into practice in order to achieve Independent police status (If you have already achieved this by serving as a Special Constable you will receive coaching and mentoring on your team).

You will then follow a programme to achieve full occupational competence over a two-year probation period.

To find out how to apply for a police officer role, view our police  officer recruitment process.