The Development of Professional Competence: The Case for an “Educational” Approach to Vocational Courses for the Police

Abstract

Professional competence exists at two levels: the level of individual competence, which is normally acquired through training in occupationally relevant knowledge and skills, and the level of collective competence, contained in the body of professionally-relevant knowledge capable of offering solutions to a wide range of human problems. The tendency of vocational courses to emulate the established professions by providing theoretical courses in related academic disciplines confuses these two levels and also the associated distinction between training and education. The relevance and value of academic vocational education lies in its role in stimulating the development of professionally-relevant theoretical knowledge by practitioners themselves. For the police, it offers the opportunity to make explicit assumptions and beliefs which comprise existing and tacit “police sociology”, and to subject them to critical scrutiny.