North Yorkshire Police is looking for budding ‘actors’ and guest speakers to help with training student officers.

Volunteers could end up playing a vulnerable person, a drunk or somebody selling drugs as part of the role plays used to train the students so they are equipped to deal with some of the situations faced in their posts.

One of the key factors for the modernisation of the current training programme is community engagement.

By choosing local volunteers the student officers gain a keen insight into the needs of the communities they will be policing.

Some of the ways North Yorkshire Police is engaging its student officers with the community are by:

• bringing subject matter experts in as guest speakers.
• student officer placement (the aim of this community placement is to enhance the student officers' understanding of other organisations, diverse communities and groups within their police area and the issues that affect them)
• taking students out of the training environment into community locations to carry out role plays (this has included York's City Centre, Designer Outlet, Brunswick Centre, Clifton Moor and Scarborough and Harrogate town centres)
• using members of the community as volunteer role players.

The Initial Police Learning and Development Programme (Student Police Training) has moved to Police Headquarters in Newby Wiske near Northallerton and anyone interested in helping with this training must be able to travel to this location. Volunteers can be all ages and abilities (under 18s must be accompanied by a supervising adult).

Volunteers should contact Jack Woodhams on 07979700901 or email Jack.Woodhams@northyorkshire.pnn.police.uk if they are interested in helping with this.