The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) International Academy Bramshill provides high quality learning programmes that cross-fertilise leadership development, promote best practice and offer blended solutions to support policing globally.
The International Commanders’ Programme (ICP) [formerly the Overseas Command Course] is a full-time course accredited by the Chartered Management Institute to lead to an Executive Diploma in Management.
It offers the opportunity for senior police officers from around the world to receive the highest level of police training combined with academic excellence and enables them to add an academic dimension to their professional profile.
MAIN AIMS
The ICP is seen as preparation for promotion to the strategic ranks. Its key aim is to further develop the management and operations skills of potential senior managers. It also aims to facilitate, encourage and support senior, and potential senior police managers, and improve their effectiveness.
It offers a unique opportunity to explore British policing, develop an approach to policing from an international perspective and acquire the skills and knowledge needed to prevent, reduce and tackle criminality wherever it occurs.
DURATION
The ICP is a 10 week full-time course and runs three times per year, with around 15 officers on each programme. In response to cultural considerations, this includes one course aimed solely at female delegates.
COST
The International Commanders’ Programme is based at Bramshill in Hampshire, England and costs up to £16,000 (including accommodation) to attend. A sliding scale discount may apply if more than one person from the same police force attends.
ELIGIBILITY
The ICP is targeted at superintendents, i.e. territorial commanders and department heads. Officers at inspector level identified as possessing high potential will also be considered to accommodate smaller forces where there may be limited numbers of superintendents.
It does not target any specific region of the world. The majority of course members currently come from Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean, but officers from Asia, South America and middle Europe (European Union accession countries) also attend. To date 88 countries have sent over 1,200 officers to attend this programme.
Students should also demonstrate proficiency in oral and written English to undertake research and complete papers to the standards required. As a guide, students must be able to attain a minimum band of 6.5 overall on the English Language Testing Service (ELTS) or a score of 580 on the Princeton Test of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).
KEY DEVELOPMENT THEMES
- Building skills and capacity
- Enhancing activities and outputs
- Improving citizen security and policing at the local, national, and global levels
The following diagram represents a model of the international policing environment. At its core are the skills and capacity of individual police officers within an organisational context. These are combined, via doctrine, to create policing activities and outputs at the BCU and police service levels. Finally, these policing activities and outputs impact on local, national and global security.
The ICP will progressively structure professional development, as expressed in the key development themes. It takes participants on a developmental journey starting with themselves as the leader/ manager, then building and enhancing skills and capacity within an organisational framework. It will then address the role of the leader in terms of creating and managing effective processes for policing service delivery which meet environmental demands.
Finally, it examines how these processes can be harnessed to influence the environment with measurable impact. The linking logic is progression from skills & capacity to activity & outputs that take place in local, regional and global contexts.
OTHER BENEFITS
The ICP is largely delivered by tutors from the NPIA, but also draws heavily on the expertise and experience of British police officers, especially in key areas such as public order, police and community relations, crime prevention, media relations, leadership development, IT and the development of policing strategy.
One of the benefits of this course is the exposure students get to other policing perspectives. There is a strong focus upon community policing, and in the latter part of the course, students work on developing a solution to a strategic problem faced by their own force.
The programme is also accredited by the Chartered Management Institute Upon successful completion, students will be awarded the Executive Diploma in Management, allowing them to choose from a number of both academic and vocational progressive options.
ASSESSMENT PROCESS
All students are assessed as they progress through the programme, as well as on set pieces of formal research and writing comprising two 3,000 word written papers on ‘Key Issues in Policing’ & ‘Strategic Review of Policing’, and a learning diary, which they complete during the course.
