Juliana's journey video transcript

My name is Juliana Gourlay and I work in the Criminal Investigations department in Nottinghamshire Police and I did the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship at Derby University.

I really wanted to do the degree apprenticeship because it was my last opportunity to get a degree. So as an older person, this was an opportunity for me to be able to get the degree and be in a job that that I loved as well as gaining that degree at the same time.

I've absolutely loved my apprenticeship journey from the get-go, the lecturers were amazing.

Derby University was really supportive.

Yeah so the journey was great for me.

The skills I've gained from the apprenticeship programme, I think, are being able to write academically.

That's not something that I'd done previously.

And then the skills I've learned through working as a police officer at the same time have been invaluable.

They've kind of been supported by the academic side at university. And then I've been able to put that into practice alongside doing the degree.

Apprenticeship police courses offer variety, they offer difference and they offer challenge.

We have in Derby, the highest rate nationally of first-class honours degrees across any other policing programme.

We are looked at as some of the best educational policing courses across the region and nationally now, too. So yeah, very pleased about that. 

Their lecturers were just absolutely amazing. We weren't just sat in front of a whiteboard in a room, they were actually telling us stories of their experiences which made it a lot more interesting and a lot more exciting for us.

I think working full-time with university studies was quite difficult, but it's always going to be isn't it if you take on a project like that?

I've also got three children at home. So for me it was quite a big thing to take on.

But the University gave us kind of study days and enough time to be able to set aside for university.

And for me, I'm a bit of a police nerd, so I enjoyed doing the essays. So for me, it wasn't really a chore; it was more of a pleasure.

Skills that Juliana and all PCDA students have are on a different level than cops on other programmes.

In normal terms of police recruitment, it's usually level four, maybe level five, but this is level six at the end of the day.

So she's coming out with a different skill set, but it's designed that way. It's a degree at the end of the day, you're going to come out with a degree.

You're going to have to work hard for it, but you will have a different skill set than others who don't, have not done that route.

Juliana uses her skill set within CRD. So the investigation of crime - her Master's in Criminal Investigation is about listening to how we interview people, a different skill set for that as well - so it's a different level. I mean I've worked in numerous different departments which is a real positive with the degree apprenticeship programme.

That's one of the best things about it I think. So I spent a year on response policing. Then in the second year did rotations around the different departments.

So the role was continuously changing and then the last two and a half years I've spent in the criminal investigations department. So you're always learning something new.  It's definitely evolving over time.

So it's immense from when I first started.

The most rewarding part about working with apprentices is the variety of people you get on the course because you are offering the opportunity to take a degree as well is that we have people who are 18/19 but people who are in their 40s. People who are academic - we get people in the course who've got masters degree and there's that opportunity then to learn from each other. I love that. 

I think this apprenticeship is different than other learning opportunities because you get to be in the thick of it with being a full-time police officer right from the beginning.

But you're also then being supported academically on the university journey at the same time.

She really threw herself into it. Because she knew she wanted to be a police officer. She is a success story, an absolute success story.

Job satisfaction-wise, I think it's making a real impact for the victims and supporting families. So, when we go to things like sudden deaths, I think it's a real privilege to be involved in the last moments of of somebody's life and to support the family and be there for them.

You see that you are actually making a difference. And the same when you have taken something through court and you've got, you know, a really good result, you can offer something back to the community to show that we've really responded to this incident well.

The advice I'd give to somebody who's considering apprenticeship in this field would be to definitely just go for it. I think the experience that I've had has been brilliant. It's such a great opportunity to get a degree alongside being a police officer.

So yeah, definitely go for it.

Juliana's journey video

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