'Proud’ Fed member reveals hard work and sacrifice behind degree apprenticeship

14 January 2025

Ryan graduated from the University of Derby with a 2:1 in Professional Policing early 2024 after a testing but successful three years combining practical training with classroom-based learning.

Having worked as a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) before beginning his studies, Ryan has gradually increased his exposure to frontline policing over the years.

Edging ever closer to becoming a regular cop through this period, he now reflects on this journey with a great sense of pride.

“I was pretty keen on the idea of becoming a police officer from my early teens. I still wasn’t fully convinced, though, mainly because it is a huge commitment that you have to be all-in on – I now know for certain that you cannot do it by halves,” Ryan said.

Derbyshire Police Federation member Ryan McGrath.

“There were also other considerations for my career and I didn’t want to close the door on those yet, so becoming a PCSO felt like the smart option for me at the age of 23.

“As a PCSO, I met some really influential police officers and after a while, I was ready to get more of a taste of what they did. But I was happy to let it continue being more of a slow burner, so the degree apprenticeship made sense as the next step, as opposed to joining the force in the traditional way.”

Ryan enjoyed a role on response for Ilkeston throughout his time as a student officer, and also made strides on various 10-week attachments, such as on a safer neighbourhood team and a custody investigation unit at Derbyshire Constabulary.

But while the PCDA may have afforded him a transition period as an operational officer, he says its more theoretical side certainly made him feel like he had entered policing at the deep end.

Course

The 28-year-old revealed he contemplated withdrawing from the course six times in as many months following his enrolement.

“I’ve never been particularly academic, so that side of things definitely took some getting used to.

“There were times when I really wondered if it was right for me and wanted to give up – conversations with my old PCSO supervisor were huge in keeping me going.

“With the enthusiasm I had for the practical side, I thought that would carry me through in the classroom. But I realised that wasn’t going to work.”

Once he made up his mind to persevere with the PCDA, Ryan had to find a way of thriving in his studies, rather than just trying to get through them.

Going a long way to achieving this was a rearrangement of his schedule – he began dedicating full days to learning and assignments, instead of managing his 180 hours of study a year into a morning here, or an afternoon there.

Developing this new routine meant he was no longer being dragged away by frontline shifts and as a result, losing focus and momentum on his university work.

Assignments

“I would have two or three learning blocks and following those, I would be set assignments,” Ryan explained.

“For the assignments in particular, I realised I couldn’t have any distractions. And eventually, I got into a good rhythm and it started working for me.

“I also started making more of a connection between the academic and practical side, such as by seeing the relationship between the case studies in my assignments and what I was seeing out on response. This helped me a lot.”

This breakthrough ensured that when Ryan’s life changed significantly during the second year of his PCDA, he was better equipped to handle the impact this had on his workload.

“In June 2022, I became a father to twin girls - it was pretty tough to squeeze in university assignments alongside two new-born babies,” he continued.

“But by that point, my commitment to the degree apprenticeship was at the maximum. So, it definitely wasn’t easy, but I knew I could do it if I put my mind to it.”

18 months of hard work down the line, and the father-of-two had become both a fully qualified police constable and the holder of a Bachelor of Science degree.

Since his graduation, he switched over to Ilkeston’s neighbourhood team, where has been able to consolidate his operational experience and apply the theoretical knowledge he has gained around conduct and professionalism, the Criminal Justice System and policing in a digital age.

Policing

Ryan has also built on the passion he had for public order policing during his degree apprenticeship by becoming Police Support Unit (PSU)-trained and attending several mutual aid deployments in recent months.

His appetite for PSU jobs has seen him enjoy a very successful 2024, being nominated for a national Police Bravery Award and act as a general patrol officer at the Paralympics in Paris, assisting French police throughout the Games.

Looking towards his future as a police officer, he said: “I don’t regret the path I have taken for a second.

“The main thing now is that I am successfully confirmed in rank within Derbyshire Constabulary, and I also have a degree I never thought I would have. For someone who, as I said, was never strong academically, that means a lot to me.

“Once I got to grips with the PCDA, I felt that what I was learning was genuinely helping me develop as an officer in day-to-day policing, which will hopefully stand me in good stead for the rest of my career.”