To help offset staffing shortages within the state, RSU will begin offering two new micro-credentials in fall 2023 to offer students specialized training towards a career in law enforcement. RSU Police Sergeant Joe Batt (pictured) is a commissioned peace officer who meets the standards of the Oklahoma Council for Law Enforcement Education Training (CLEET).
Rogers State University will begin offering two new micro-credentials in law enforcement beginning in fall 2023. The Fundamentals in Detentions and Corrections micro-credential and the Community Policing micro-credential will each be comprised of three courses, focusing on criminal justice and corrections. The courses will prepare learners for a career in law enforcement.
“As part of their Upskill initiative, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education (OSRHE) provided us with an opportunity to write micro-credential courses for critical occupations within the state of Oklahoma,” said Assistant Professor of Technology and Justice Studies Curtis Sparling. “Within that, the state – and I daresay, nationally – there has been difficulty in recent years in the recruitment of individuals into the law enforcement community – policing, public safety, detentions, and corrections.
“In an effort to help alleviate this lull, OSRHE issued a ‘call to action,’ asking universities to try and come up with programs or courses that we typically wouldn’t entertain and that could be via credit, for credit classes, some kind of training that would help garner interest in this particular profession,” he continued.
To this end, Sparling connected with Rogers County Undersheriff Jon Sappington – himself a Rogers State University alumnus – the result of which became these new micro-credentials focused on law enforcement.
“We ultimately came up with two distinct micro-credentials– Fundamentals of Detention and Corrections and Community Policing, to attract interest in this much-needed area,” Sparling said. “These (courses) are a good way to interest high school juniors and seniors in a career in law enforcement.”
Courses in the Fundamentals of Detention and Corrections micro-credential include the essentials of corrections and online learning, introduction to criminal justice, and introduction to corrections. Courses in the Community Policing micro-credential include introduction to criminal justice, community relations, and ethical decision-making.
Sparling said this micro-credential program is “basically free” to high school students as he wrote a grant request which was approved, thus enabling RSU to create scholarship opportunities for those enrolled in these courses.
“Not only are there scholarship opportunities (for the courses), as we’re marketing them to high school juniors and seniors, they can take them concurrently, and those who finish the program are given preferential hiring by the (Rogers County) sheriff’s department,” he said. “So, not only does this help show learners what it’s like to be a corrections officer and work in a detention center – often, the first step in a career in law enforcement – they finish with a job all-but-guaranteed, provided they pass the moral, physical and mental qualifications.”
Courses will be offered at Rogers State University beginning in the fall 2023 semester.
For more information about Rogers State University micro-credentials programs, visit www.rsu.edu/TJSmicro.