April 22, 2022
Pathways brings fresh look to police ranks
Police say they’re on track to meet the target of an extra 1800 cops this year, but the door is still open for new recruits.
Recruitment director Paula Hill says the next wing starts at the Police Training College in Porirua in three weeks.
A lot of recruits are coming through the Police Pathways Programme which started in Rotorua in 2009 and is now at 94 kura across the country.
She says it exposes rangatahi to the rigours of a police career even before they reach the minimum to join up age of 17 and a half, and it also gives police a source of capable and motivated recruits.
“Age isn’t experience. We’ve got a number of rangatahi out there who’s really lived. Those are types of people we want to bring to the organisation so this has been a helpful tool not only for rangatahi but for our organisation to change those mindsets,” Ms Hill says.
There are almost 1000 rangatahi in the Year 13 programme, which counts for NCEA credits.