A Model of Costs and Benefits of Training in the Police Service of Northern Ireland

This article is concerned with research carried out in the Police Service of Northern Ireland to develop a model of costs and benefits of training. It provides a blueprint for use by those who practise planning, decision making and management every day in the police organisation in order that they can solve the most crucial problem in training: how to decide on good quality and relevant training interventions within limited resources. The model has three systems: an Awareness System that sets out the culture and understanding of the organisation; the Operational System which includes identification of the needs, achieving the training outputs, delivering quality products, evaluating the products to test its value and worth and costing all of these issues under a standard costing process; and the third system is the Monitor and Control System which maintains the overall system.