Unisa is ideal partner for SAPS in re-skilling police The Unisa - The University of South African Police Service (SAPS) has partnered with Unisa in a ground-breaking initiative aimed at the re-skilling and professionalisation of SAPS. Yesterday, South Africa’s first police academy was officially opened in Paarl, Western Cape, with the first intake of 120 Bachelor of Policing degree students. The re-skilling of the police service has been recognised as an urgent need by the South African government as they aim to transform SAPS into a professional entity and to ensure that the police service is able to remain innovative, and able to respond to challenges facing South Africa regarding crime. Unisa, said the national police commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, is an ideal partner as the university has a wealth of experience in offering police and policing related degrees and diplomas. The partnership also entails the evolution of the SAPS Paarl Academy into a dedicated and specialised academy aimed at producing a new breed of police professionals equipped with the right theoretical and practical training to enable them to serve the country and its citizens diligently, efficiently and effectively. “The co-operative partnership between SAPS and Unisa is aimed at ensuring that the fulltime course will be presented professionally. We are extremely excited about this prospect and believe and trust that through these doors shall come men and women who will serve the country with pride, dignity and professionalism.” Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Mandla Makhanya, said both the public and SAPS need a mind-shift regarding the police service. He added that 21st century living requires a highly professional approach to policing that sees police primarily as community servant leaders, rather than enforcers at one level, and able to match the sophistication and capacity of the criminals and syndicates that they are investigating, at another. “It is a big and complex challenge, and we would do well not to expect a miracle overnight. The SAPS Academy is most assuredly worth having and worth working for. I will be the first to agree that formal education alone will not serve the best purpose for a career police officer. That is why I believe we need to come together to develop a model that is a hybrid characterisation of the empirical ontological and epistemological knowledge-based learning and the practical training that is key to the success of vocational training. Unisa will play its part.” In her address, Unisa Deputy Chairperson of Council, Dr Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane, said Unisa’s commitment to sound and transparent governance must echo throughout the SAPS Academy. “I can think of no better foundation for a highly regarded and sustainable institution. I am also of the view that a visible commitment to good governance by the academy’s leadership, and demonstrable evidence of the same, will result in graduates who take that ethos into the workplace. So in addition to their qualifications, they should also leave the academy as ethical graduates and citizens, steeped in the traditions and practice of good governance. I really don’t believe that this is an impossible task.” The partnership was cemented with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between SAPS and Unisa in Paarl in October last year. The academy will be unique in that it will only enroll members of SAPS with very rigorous admission requirements. SAPS members must meet strict eligibility requirements, and admitted students must meet a minimum of 65% to progress. The students will be taught on a full-time basis by experienced and internationally recognised staff on both academic and practical professional policing. Graduates of the academy will form the future professional officer corps of SAPS.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 07:30:33 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015