Alumni In Focus

We see many great personalities come through the center every week sharing a myriad of experiences from their current positions. We appreciate hearing about successful post training stories from our alumni.  We are proud to feature Mr. Adu Dickson, an Alumnus of the WARTC.  We hope you enjoy the read!

Mr. Dickson during an FBI Crime Scene Management Course in August

THE WARTC EXPERIENCE

I have had the opportunity to attend a number of training programs at different places. However, my time at the WARTC holds a particular significance in my professional progression.

My first encounter with the center was when I participated in a two week training program on Strategic Management for Law Enforcement (SMLE) in November 2015. The said training exposed me to certain areas like the causes and strategies in addressing the impact of stress, strategies for televised communications and the making of live public presentations.

As someone in a management position, the training also offered me very crucial enlightenment on the differences between the duties of a manager and that of a leader. The module gave me more insight into the theories of leadership and the attributes of transformational leaders. Knowledge from these modules influenced, to a very large extent, how I subsequently handled my subordinates back at my station.

The eleven (11) member contingent from the Ghana Immigration Service, who participated in the SMLE training program, duly acknowledged in a common official report that the training was very good for management staff and mid-level officers. These officers even went further to recommend for more collaboration between our institution and the RTC.

The mode of the training required participants to do many presentations before the class as exercises. The forum afforded me the opportunity to showcase a performance that caught the admiration of fellow participants including the Head of a critical unit at the Immigration headquarters. After the program, a recommendation from a participant got the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre to hire me as a facilitator in one of its training programs.

Shortly after the training, the Head of this special unit facilitated my transfer to his unit at our headquarters in Accra. Barely one month at my new office, I had the privilege of attending another training program at the WARTC on Crime Scene Management and Evidence Collection in August 2016. It was very timely, and the right training I needed in my new line of investigative work at the headquarters. The training equipped me with knowledge and skills in collecting trace evidence, blood and body fluids, latent fingerprints, as well as crime scene search techniques.

Besides acquiring knowledge and skills from this training, I accepted a set of crime scene investigation kits and supplies which included a digital camera and other assorted tools on behalf of my institution. These items which have contributed greatly to my unit’s work were delivered by the FBI Evidence Response Team that facilitated the training.

In fact, the contribution of the West Africa Regional Training Center, Accra, in helping me and other officers of the Immigration Service to build our capacity, can never be overemphasized. I can only ask and hope for more training opportunities at the Center in order to keep abreast with the ever changing trends in law enforcement.

If you would like us to feature an article from any law enforcement domain, or share your success story, kindly email us at info@westafricartc.org and we'll get working! You can also connect with us via Facebook and Twitter by starting discussions on any topic related to our field of work.

Post by Collins Agyare. Collins is one of the Delegate/Alumni Coordinators at the West Africa Regional Training Center. Email him at info@westafricartc.org