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Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA)

Work-based undergraduate (3 years)

Upon successful completion of the recruitment process, monthly start dates available. Most of your training will take place on the job, working alongside experienced police officers in one of 12 Basic Command Units across London. This course is delivered through work-based study and attendance at a London campus. The Met also offers a part-time PC career route where new joiners can now train and start their service on a part-time basis.

Become a police officer in London’s Metropolitan Police Service, and embark on an exciting and rewarding career like no other.

You’ll be a police officer from the day you join - embarking on an exciting and rewarding career like no other. The Met’s Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship combines on the job learning with working towards a fully funded degree, all while earning a competitive salary and making a difference to London communities.

Who is this programme for?

The Met is looking for people from all walks of life committed to making a real difference. Someone with resilience, empathy and ambition; you’ll receive world class training and become a valued member of an incredibly supportive and passionate team working to keep Londoners safe.

Your career

Joining the Met 

Joining the Met as a new Police Constable is just the beginning of the journey – this could be the start of an exciting and varied career. During your probationary period, you'll be working alongside experienced officers and gaining a wide range of practical and on-the-job knowledge to compliment your in-classroom training. The foundation you gain will stand you in good stead for the rest of your police career. 

Professional development

Once you have successfully completed your probationary period, you'll then have plenty of opportunities to continue your professional development. Given that London is a unique city, it presents a unique set of policing challenges.

This means that the Met is involved in a wide range of operations and policing events, each presenting their own distinct opportunities to broaden your skill set, on a scale that you wouldn’t find in any other police service.

As a PC in London’s Met your career path could take you in many directions, be it as a detective, working in diplomatic protection, child protection, or as an authorised firearms officer. A dog handler or member of the mounted branch, working on 24hr response, or in cybercrime, the list of opportunities afforded to you at the Met is endless. 

Pay

As a new full-time police constable in the Met on the PCDA entry route, your total starting salary package will be circa £30,000 (including London allowances) increasing to circa £33,000 on successful completion of your probationary period. Base salary increases annually and typically police constables with seven years’ service can expect to earn circa £47,000 (including allowances).

Part-time officers' salaries will be based on the pro-rata equivalent of a full-time officer.


Benefits

Working for the Met as a Police Constable is a genuinely rewarding career where you are able to see the impact that your hard-work has in making London safer for everybody. In addition to the personal satisfaction that you gain, you will receive a competitive salary as well as a number of other benefits:

Discounts

Whether you're on or off duty, you'll enjoy free travel on London Underground and buses, seven days a week, from the time you have completed your initial police training courses. You can also enter in to our rail travel scheme for heavily discounted rail travel up to 70 miles from central London.

Many major high street stores, retail outlets and other national organisations offer discounts and special deals to police officers and many of the Met's sites have subsidised staff restaurants. 

Private healthcare

You can join our contributory private healthcare scheme and will also benefit from free eye tests and glasses if you regularly use a computer.

You, your family and friends will be able to access a huge number of subsidised leisure and sporting activities. There are nearly fifty different sports and social associations that you (and in many cases your family) can benefit from joining. 

Annual leave and support

As a full-time Police Constable in the Met you'll have 22 days paid annual holiday, rising to 30 days a year depending on your length of service. This is on top of public holidays and an average of two rest days each week. You can also expect other forms of leave, including maternity, paternity and adoption leave, special leave (with or without pay), parental leave and career breaks of up to five years.

We pride ourselves on being a caring employer and provide a whole range of support initiatives to help with both you and your family's welfare. These include:

· support for employees with caring responsibilities (eg flexible working arrangements)

· occupational health and welfare counselling (from psychotherapy to financial guidance)

· resettlement and outplacement support and services

· a subsidised convalescence home

· holiday play schemes to help with your childcare

· a network of 'First Contacts' who you can talk to about anything on a one-to-one basis

· development and mentoring schemes

· membership of the Police Federation

· Staff Support Associations to support and represent your needs and/or beliefs and values.

When you start as a new Police Constable, you'll automatically become a member of the New Police Pension Scheme 2015. This is a CARE (Career Average Revalued Earnings) pension scheme which offers a guaranteed pension with an optional lump sum, based on the earnings you receive during your career. Both you and the Met will contribute and you will receive tax relief on the contributions you make. If you already have a pension it may be possible to transfer this into the police scheme.


Programme content

The apprenticeship consists of the following modules and assessments:

Level 4 Modules

  • Introduction to the Role of the Police
  • Introduction to Policing Practice
  • Vulnerability and Risk
  • Operational Policing Skills
  • Research Methods and Evidence-Based Policing

Level 5 Modules

  • Developing Professional Practice
  • Safeguarding, Public Protection and Vulnerability
  • Crime Investigation and Intelligence Management
  • Community Policing, Problem Solving and Confidence
  • Response Policy, Patrol and Policing the Roads
  • Evidence-Based Policing and Researching the Police

Level 6 Modules

  • Specialist Policing Modules to be agreed with the Met (Response, Community, The Roads, Information and Intelligence, Conducting Investigations)
  • Policing, Leadership and Professional Development
  • Evidence-Based Policing Project and End Point Assessment

Your training will also include officer safety and emergency life support skills to fully prepare you for your operational role.

 

How is this programme delivered?

You are required to dedicate at around 20% of your working hours studying towards the programme. You’ll spend most of your training on the job, working as part of a policing team on a Basic Command Unit (BCU), fully supported in putting your learning into practice by experienced officers.

In the classroom 

You’ll start your training with an initial period of classroom-based learning at a London university and will be welcomed into an operational policing team in which you will be working. You’ll undertake most of your training on the frontline, in one of 12 Basic Command Units (BCUs), where you’ll work alongside a team of experienced officers. 

Your learning

Your learning will cover a wide range of policing topics including officer safety training, emergency life support, safeguarding, crime investigation and operational policing skills (based on a national policing curriculum).

In your final year, you’ll undertake a research project, which will focus on a practical policing problem with a solution that makes a difference to helping keep London safe.

Training

Throughout your training you’ll undertake work-based learning, fully supported in applying new skills and knowledge as part of your operational duties, as well as self-directed study and reflective learning. You’ll be immersed in day-to-day policing. This will let you contextualise what you are learning and develop the skills and experience you need for this challenging role, while actively contributing to policing priorities in your area as a fully employed police officer from day one. 

Assessments

You’ll need to successfully complete both operational and academic assessments before being awarded a degree and becoming a fully-fledged police officer. All assessments have been specifically designed to test the skills, knowledge and qualities required to be an officer.

You will have to complete a number of different assessments throughout the course, including written reflective reports and essays, exams, presentations (both group and individual) and digital artefacts (eg a case study blog or podcast).

Operational Competence Portfolio

Alongside academic assessments, you will also need to compile an Operational Competence Portfolio over the duration of the apprenticeship and pass a number of operational assessments against a range of critical policing skills, including; providing effective initial response to a critical incident, engaging proactively with communities, conducting effective evaluation of intelligence and providing support to vulnerable people, victims and witnesses. 

Final Year

In your final year, you will be required to complete the End Point Assessment, which will be made up of the following:

· a professional discussion based on your Operational Competence Portfolio

· a 10,000-word research project based on your policing specialism

· a presentation and Assessment Panel discussion.

You will also be required to evidence operational competence in several areas, such as:

· providing effective initial response to a critical incident

· engaging proactively with communities

· conducting effective evaluations of intelligence.


What are the entry requirements?

Entry requirements

GCSE grade C, or 4 or above, in English and Maths (or equivalent level 2 qualifications). If you don’t already hold a level 2 qualification in Maths we’ll support you to achieve this.

Plus one of the following:

  • 64 UCAS points (e.g. 2 A-levels at Grade C)
  • An academic or vocational qualification gained outside England & Wales equivalent to 64 UCAS points
  • Training or work experience, equivalent to 64 UCAS points
  • 12 months service as a special constable having achieved IPS
  • 12 months service as a community support officer having passed probationary period

If you would like to complete the PCDA but do not meet all the requirements, a recruitment panel will consider your performance throughout the recruitment process, along with your education and any employment history – helping to select the right learner journey for you.

For our complete entry requirements including age and residency requirements, please refer to www.met.police.uk/pcpathways for latest details

Final award

When you have finished your apprenticeship, you will be awarded the degree BSc (Hons) Professional Policing Practice.


Where can I study?

Studying with the Metropolitan Police

The Met provide some of the best training in the world to fully prepare you for the unique challenges of policing London.

This training programme is delivered in partnership with four London universities:

  • Anglia Ruskin University
  • Brunel University London
  • The University of East London
  • The University of West London.

You’ll be assigned to one of the Met’s four partner universities as part of your training. However, you’ll spend most of your training on the job, working as part of a policing team on a Basic Command Unit (BCU), fully supported in putting your learning into practice by experienced officers.