REINVENTING OUR BASIC OFFICER TRAINING
THE BLENDED TRAINING MODEL
TRANSFORMING TRAINING
REINVENTING OUR BASIC OFFICER TRAINING
“ Our goal was to improve the work-life balance of our future officers while enhancing the overall quality of the training that we offer. We knew the Blended Model could be a game-changer for how law enforcement training is done.”
-Reginald Huley, DCS Training Director
Previously, every DCS officer candidate was required to spend nine consecutive weeks in intensive residential training at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. For even the most committed future officers, attending this required Basic Community Supervision Officer Training( BCSOT) was a major disruption to their home life, and dissuaded some qualified candidates from even considering joining DCS. The Blended Training Model replaces weeks of classroom curricula with online courses.
The Blended Training Model transforms the way we train future Community Supervision Officers by leveraging online training technology to reduce on-location training time— helping maximize DCS resources and enhancing training quality.
Blended Training allows students more flexibility on their path to becoming a sworn officer while simultaneously increasing access to valuable on-the-job training and rigorous academic courses.
THE BLENDED TRAINING MODEL
INNOVATIVE CONCEPT
Basic Community Supervision Officer Cadets complete a combination of on-site, onground, or on-campus training at GPSTC and online academic courses.
Previously, DCS basic training required cadets to complete nine weeks of training at GPSTC. Today, cadets spend four weeks at GPSTC.
IMPLEMENTATION
The Training and Professional Development Unit launched online training on July 6, 2017.
As of December 2017, more than 1,000 DCS employees have participated in online courses offered through the new Blended Training Model.
INCREASED CAPACITY
Under the previous training model, DCS was only able to graduate five BCSOT cohorts per year.
Adopting the Blended Training Model has allowed DCS to increase the number of BCSOT cohorts to up to 12 per year if needed, beginning in FY18.
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Georgia Department of Community Supervision