The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) hosted two University students on their Internship Programme for the month of September.
The Internship Programme gives students the opportunity to spend time working in the office on real-life projects to gain experience working within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.
The students were tasked with reviewing the Summer of Fun programme ran by the OPCC which directly links to the Police and Crime Commissioner’s priority of ‘tackling the causes of crime and breaking the cycle of re-offending’. The students spent four weeks analysing feedback and data from the project and have come up with a proposed plan for the Summer of Fun 2022 based on this analysis.
Commenting on the internship the Commissioner said:
“I would like to thank Daisy and Ellie for their time in my office, the work they have produced is nothing short of outstanding. My team and I were genuinely blown away by your professionalism, passion and attention to detail in the project. The intricate detail in the review of our summer of fun programme has meant that we now have a really good plan for our 2022 project and this is all down to you”.
The students expressed their desire to work within Bedfordshire Police and have said the experience has confirmed their thinking around this.
Ellie Jones, who is studying Psychology at Coventry University said “this experience has definitely improved my growing confidence in (almost) completing a project from start to finish, carrying out research, analysing my findings, and making recommendations. I have learned that I am capable of delegation, project management and that my presentation skills are definitely improving.
“I was expecting to be given less responsibility and to be given tasks throughout the month purely to support other staff members, but am pleased we were given our own project to work towards”.
“This experience has also cemented my future career aspirations and has made me even more determined to follow a career within the police force. I have enjoyed working with everyone at the OPCC and look forward to seeing some of the work I have helped with next year in action”.
Daisy Turner, who is studying Law and Criminology at Luton University said “the opportunity to be able to participate in the internship with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has been excellent. It has been great to see just how much the office does in order to keep the people of Bedfordshire happy”.
“From this experience I have further developed my research skills as well as being able to speak to new people on the telephone and presenting in front of people. This is something I struggled with prior to the experience which I can now say I am more comfortable in doing”.
There will be more internships available in Autumn 2022, full details will be available on our website.