OLE Trains Police Officers from Southern Police Prefecture

On May 25-26, 2009 took place a training course for OLE’s volunteer presenters. This time it involved 8 police officers of Southern Police Prefecture dealing with crime prevention.

OLE and Southern Police Prefecture have signed a cooperation contract aiming at making railway traffic safer through common activities. One of the provisions of the agreement was that OLE is helping to improve the railway safety knowledge of the prefecture’s staff. In previous periods OLE has trained crime prevention officers from Northern, Western and Eastern Police Prefectures.

The objective of OLE presenters’ training is to improve the railway safety knowledge of the participants, develop their public speaking skills that are necessary for conducting presentations and to give them practical experience on making presentations. After the completion of the training course all the participant should be able to make independently railway safety presentations.

The two-day training course took placer away from the daily working environment – in Mokko Country Hotel in Jõgeva County. The hotel greeted the participants with fresh homemade pastry, cosy environment and OLE trainers ready to make railway safety issues interesting throughout the two days. At the beginning of the first training day Tamo Vahemets, Chairman of the Board of OLE, introduced the objectives of the organisation, its working principles and activities, underlining that the police has been one of the most important partners of the non-profit organisations. The training day continued with lectures on railway safety issues. Tamo Vahemets and Getter Toome, OLE’s Training Manager, spoke about various issues related to railway safety and explain how to use training materials and videos in the process of making presentations. The second half of the day was spent on developing presentational skills: how to prepare for presentation in order to communicate its message efficiently to the audience. Active discussions continued throughout the day and the participants became more and more interested of the subject.

During the second day of training, each participant had to make a sample presentation consisting of 7 slides and lasting for 15 minutes. After that the presentations were analysed and the presenters were given feedback. While one participant received feedback the others were engaged in group work, giving their contribution to the future activities of OLE – they prepared a crossword that could be used at various events.

OLE got 8 new certified presenters who were police officers Maarja Punak, Maris Orgusaar, Veronika Kivilaid, Liia Kilp, Thea Tekkel, Linda Oks, Andrus Salu and Peeter Pau.

OLE will support the new presenters by providing them necessary presentation materials. Each police prefecture has received from OLE a presentation equipment kit (laptop, data projector, screen and loudspeakers) that can be used by the regional presenters.

The participants’ feedback about the training was positive. There were several participants who pointed out that the training gave them more then they could expect. About presentational skills’ training it was said that although the participants had some prior experience, they still learned many useful things on how to improve their public speaking. The trainers were also extremely satisfied with their audience. Getter Toome summarised the two-day event by saying that “For me it was really interesting to see how the participants became more and more interested in the subject discussed. People tend to think that there is not much new to be said about railway safety – everything is already clear. This attitude changed during the training and it was acknowledged by the participants. In addition to then changes in attitude the contribution by the participants was extremely important. Although the subject was new for everybody, the sample presentations made during the second day of training were of very high quality. It was actually much better than we expected. I hope that the training course made the participants interested and ready to conduct their railway safety presentations.”

During its four years of activities OLE has trained more than 30 volunteer presenters most of whom are police officers. Among the presenters are also youth advisers, people involved in Neighbourhood Watch movement, a diver, a navy officer, etc. OLE wants to strengthen its presenters’ network covering the entire country even further.