Students take on Go Higher in Policing event

Posted 1 July 2025

The Go Higher in Policing event was organised by Go Higher West Yorkshire’s (GHWY) Uni Connect Programme in collaboration with West Yorkshire Police (WYP) and host institution Leeds Trinity University.

The event happened on Wednesday, 4 June and allowed students from four West Yorkshire schools to explore careers in policing, whether through becoming a front-line police officer, working as a Crime Scene Investigator (CSI) or becoming a detective.

It allowed the students to see how to join the police directly and to explore the Policing degree apprenticeship and other courses such as criminology.

What qualifies someone for the police

The day started with an introduction and activity about what qualifies a person to join the police.

To join the police, an individual must be 18 by the time the job role starts, have Level 2/GCSE qualifications and Level 3 qualifications such as 2 A levels. More information can be found on the WYP website.

Representatives from the force discussed the importance of vetting and the bleep test (a type of fitness test). Individuals are not being allowed to join the police if they have a criminal record or if they fail the fitness test.

The morning session covered many varieties of higher education routes to policing and the criminal justice system.

An impactful testimony from lecturer

Andi Brierley (Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Investigation and Policing at Leeds Trinity University) was one of the speakers as the event. He gave students an activity that allowed them to read a case study about a teen named Adrian. They then had to decide what punishment was suitable for the teen and discuss their reasoning for the option they chose.

After the discussion, Andi revealed that he was Adrian. This surprised everyone in the lecture hall and the students were filled with curiosity. They asked questions such as how Andi was able to get a job in university with a permanent record.

Workshops from WYP

Students attended four different sessions:

The physical health of being in the police was discussed, which developed an understanding of the different roles within the police force. Students learned that the level of 5.4 in a bleep test is required to be part of the police. They were able to test if they could achieve this and learned various self-defence moves.

In the Operational Policing Support Unit (OPS) session, students learnt about how having a dog within the police force works and the training needed to become a firearm officer.

In the session focused on detectives, they educated the students on how crime cases are prioritised to be solved. The students had an activity based around that which allowed them to prioritise what they believed were important cases to resolve or cold cases.

In the CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) session, students learned about how CSI do their job and how it benefits the police force and criminal justice system.

Find out more about GHWY’s Go Higher in Days

GHWY has organised five Go Higher in Days that have focused on different industry sectors this academic year. Read more about them in our case studies below: