Colin Gayles (left), associate professor and dean, Faculty of Science and Sport, gives a listening ear to Assistant Commissioner of Police Devon Watkis during the launch of the Forensic Chemistry Work-Study Summer Programme 2013 at the University of Technology, St Andrew, yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Photographer
Daviot Kelly, Staff ReporterApproximately 30 forensic chemistry students from the University of Technology (UTech) will get real-time work experience with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).
For six weeks, the students will work with Scene of Crime units across . The work-study programme was launched yesterday at the university's Papine campus. Dr Kenesha Wilson, cooperative education coordinator for the School of Natural and Applied Sciences, explained that the work experience is compulsory once the students sign up for the specialisation area.
"Once they are not on academic probation and completed all their previous courses, they automatically do the externship programme," she said.
Wilson explained that the students were between year three and four of their studies, as some third-year students deferred placement for this year. Because the programme is islandwide, Wilson said the JCF is accommodating the students as much as possible.
"Due to the financial constraints students face, they are placing them closest to where they live," she said. Assistant Commissioner of Police Devon Watkis, who heads the Criminal Investigation Branch, said he considered the Faculty of Science and Sport (under which the applied sciences fall) a major partner of the JCF looking forward. He encouraged the students to consider joining the force after study.
Dean of the Faculty of Science and Sport, Dr Colin Gyles, said the discussions to create such an interaction had taken place up to five years ago. While thanking the JCF for providing the opportunity for the practical training, he warned the students that crime-scene investigations may have a certain mystique, but the reality can be different.
"This is serious business about solving problems," he said. "And, therefore, your experience in this cooperative education aspect of your training, I'm sure will not give you a shock."
He said he hoped the country would note the university's efforts to find solutions.
"The problem-solving aspects that involve hard sciences, that involve investigation, forensics, the analysis of facts, are very important and we want to say that is the way to solve our (crime) problems."