Tairawhiti police are welcoming a fresh Te Wānanga o Aotearoa course aimed at preparing people keen on a career as a police officer.

There are a around a dozen serving officers in the Tairawhiti policing district who did the previous Te Wānanga o Aotearoa course at Gisborne’s Whirikoka campus, preparing people for a police career, that ran between 2010-2016.

Over 2017-2018 Te Wānanga o Aotearoa started developing a new course that is aimed at preparing people for successful entry into career training for a broader range of services, including police, the military, Corrections and Customs.

Tairawhiti area commander Sam Aberahama says the local force is proud to have supported the police preparation course at the Whirikoka campus in Gisborne between 2010 and 2016.

“This support included visits during class sessions by the Area Commander, the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) Commander and police staff from a variety of work groups including dogs, AOS, police safety teams, detectives and iwi liaison officers which contributed to the enthusiasm and commitment of these tauira.

“Skills gained by the tauira included completing assignments on time, public speaking, interview exercises by police staff, physical training sessions and theory lessons to name a few. We currently have 12 serving police officers in Gisborne from this programme and, while there was a postponement to the program in 2017 and 2018, it is pleasing that we will be commencing the new programme in 2019.

“Every serving police officer from this course has developed extremely well alongside their mainstream colleagues and I am very proud of them all. I will support them to develop further in the coming years.“

The new 36-week course, due to get underway this month, will give tauira a range of transferable skills which will help equip them for the uniformed career training of their choice.

“I expect this course will benefit each tauira towards goal-setting and achieving positive outcomes in their life journey,” says Mr Aberahama.

“The skills they should obtain during the programme will equip each individual to proceed forward in a variety of potential careers, not only policing. Your police should reflect your community. Therefore my team and I are invested in this partnership with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa as we go on this journey together building trust and confidence in one another. I look forward to positive outcomes and supporting the programme to be successful.”

There are still spaces available on this year’s Whirikoka course. Visit www.twoa.ac.nz.

The new course is also being offered at another six Te Wānanga o Aotearoa North Island locations.

Graduates are not guaranteed employment with police or other organisations.