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Protective Services

Course Code: PSL1
  • Level: 1
  • Qualification: BTEC Diploma
  • Awarding body: Pearson
  • Duration: One year
  • Course type: Full-time
  • Time of day: Daytime
  • When you'll study: Three days a week, 9.00am - 4.15pm
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What's it all about?

This isn’t about memorising thick textbooks for a massive exam at the end of the year. Instead, you will learn by doing, building a portfolio of practical assignments as you go. You will dive into how the UK’s public services work while developing the exact skills employers and colleges are looking for. 

Depending on the path you choose, you will study key areas such as:

  • Finding Your Strengths: mapping out your own goals with a Personal Progression Plan. 
  • Working as a Team: learning how to communicate, solve problems, and lead others in high-pressure situations. 
  • Public Services in Action: discovering how different services support the community and respond to emergencies. 
  • Getting Active: taking part in physical fitness, outdoor activities, and discovering what it takes to stay rescue-ready. 

Course information

Core Life & Employability Skills (Group A) 

These units are designed to build up confidence, teaching skills that are essential whether working in the police force or running a business.
  • Developing a Personal Progression Plan: every student takes this. It is a roadmap to help figure out individual strengths, map out future career steps, and plan exactly how to get there. 
  • Being Organised: learning how to manage time, meet deadlines, and stay on top of responsibilities.
  • Working with Others: a massive part of the public services. Students learn team dynamics, how to listen, and how to pull together to achieve a goal. 
  • Researching information: learning how to find reliable information, a crucial skill for report-writing in services like the police or local government.
Public Services Sector Skills (Group B) 
This is the hands-on, practical side where students explore what the job actually looks like on the front line. 
  • Finding Out about Public Services: an overview of the different UK services (Emergency Services, Armed Forces, Local Government), what they do, and how they keep communities safe. 
  • Public Services Group Project: working as a squad to plan, organise, and run a community or team project from start to finish. 
  • Taking Part in Fitness Activities: looking at how physical fitness impacts performance in the services, tracking personal fitness levels, and taking part in regular training. 
  • Responding to an Incident: a practical look at how services handle emergencies, including learning how to assess a situation safely and follow standard procedures. 
  • Carrying out an Outdoor Activity: gaining confidence outside the classroom, which can involve basic navigation, map reading, or outdoor team-building exercises. 

There are no specific entry requirements for this course.

This course includes theoretical elements and practical assessments. The assessments can vary from essays and presentations in the classroom to working with members of the public in the sports hall. 

All assessment methods aim to ensure the skills are being developed, and you have a chance to use them in the real world.  

Upon successful completion you may progress to the Level 2 Protective Services Preparation course. 

Please note fees are quoted for one year only.

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Future careers

What you could earn:

Senior Police Officers

£144,424.48

Potential salary

£13,100.60

Entry level salary

£64,974.99

Average salary

3

Annual openings in Plymouth

View career details

Related courses

Uniformed Protective Services (Policing Pathway)

  • Level: 3
  • Qualification: Extended Diploma
  • Awarding body: Business & Technology Education Council (BTEC)
  • Duration: Two years
  • Course type: Full-time

Uniformed, Community and Protective Services

  • Level: 3
  • Qualification: Extended Diploma
  • Awarding body: Northern Council for Further Education (NCFE)
  • Duration: Two years
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Protective Services Preparation

  • Level: 2
  • Qualification: Diploma
  • Awarding body: Northern Council for Further Education (NCFE)
  • Duration: One year
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