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