You might come for the state of the art situation simulator, but you’ll stay for the hands on experience. That’s the message the Timmins Police Service and OPP were giving yesterday at a Careers in Policing information session at Northern College, informing potential students of the training facilities they offer.

Northern College announced plans for a new Integrated Emergency Services Complex which is going forward, despite the City of Timmins Council announcing last week that it is withdrawing from the partnership. “Council has to best weigh its priorities and manage its internal issues – I respect that”, said Fred Gibbons, President of Northern College. “The decision is an unfortunate one however, to the overall economy of scale and synergies that the integrated emergency services complex could have provided to residents of the east end, to the professional and volunteer emergency services workers and to our students”, said Gibbons.

The planned Integrated Emergency Services Complex will have state of the art facilities, including jails, a courtroom, fingerprinting facilities, and a $1 Million simulator designed to train potential officers, fire fighters and paramedics for different situations. Renee Taylor, the Northeastern Recruitment Officer for the OPP says these new training facilities will add to the more intimate, hands on experience students get in Northern Ontario. “It’s probably going to allow these students to have more hands on experience,” she said at the information session yesterday. “I think any additional experience that they get, the training with the professors here at the colleges is fantastic, it’s just going to bring more experience, more expertise. And I bet you they’ll be able to bring in those experiences as well into interviews and what not.”

She also said these information sessions are invaluable when it comes to informing potential students about a career in law enforcement. “If you have a thought about policing and you come to an information session, it’s just going to let you know exactly what the requirements are, if you’re ready, if you want to pursue it. And often people come to information sessions and decide to pursue policing.”

Working in law enforcement up North might provide a more hands on education, but that’s partly because officers need to rely heavily on their training in most situations, as they will most likely be in a remote area and far away from any backup. Sergeant Jackie George, who works in recruitment and media relations, says officers need to have self-assurance and be well prepared. “The challenges would be that should an officer require backup, that backup would most likely be, at the very minimum, two hours away. That applicant would have a lot of self-confidence, of course be well-trained, rely on that training to do their everyday duties, and be very good with community service work.”

The programs at Northern College provide the training that is so important to new police officers. The hands-on approach and the smaller class sizes are something second year student in the Police Foundations Program, John Adams says is invaluable. “Northern College itself is a very small college,” he says. “I get a lot of one-on-one instruction with my professors that you wouldn’t normally get at a larger college down South.” Adams says the information sessions are also helpful for his future career. “You get a lot of good information from those different organizations about how to apply, what they’re looking for in new recruits, and just kind of what the working environment is like.”

There’s a high demand for candidates in policing, as well as fire fighting and paramedic Services. Renne Taylor says there will be a shortage in the coming years: “We do forsee hundreds retiring in the next few years. So at this time, we are absolutely looking for applicants.”  Suitable candidates for the Policing Program come from a variety of post-secondary backgrounds including Trades, Health Care, Business, Technology and Community Services.
Northern College offers programs in Pre-Service Firefighter Training and Education, Paramedics, and Police Foundations.