Education for future NSW police recruits will be offered by distance education in addition to full-time study currently offered at the NSW Police Academy said NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan last Friday in Goulburn.

"The NSW Police Service wants to attract more recruits by providing a distance education program, so that people who have families or work in trades and cannot afford to give up jobs to study at the academy can still do so," Commissioner Ryan said.

This additional study option available for the Diploma of Policing Practice was announced during Commissioner Ryan's major address at the afternoon graduation ceremony held last Friday in Goulburn.

The Commissioner said that police recruits could complete much of the first year of the Charles Sturt University (CSU) diploma program without having to give up their current employment or careers. Students would only be required to attend full-time classes at the Goulburn-based academy for the final fourteen weeks of their first year of study. After successfully completing the first year of the course and satisfying other requirements, they would be employed by the Service as probationary constables.

Serving NSW police officers and management have studied CSU courses for some years via distance education, but this will be the first time that people wishing to become NSW police officers could complete part of a course without attending the academy.

The two graduation ceremonies were attended by police officers who have completed CSU diploma, degree and postgraduate courses during the last year.

The afternoon ceremony included the first group of constables to complete the Diploma of Policing Practice, a course inspired by the Wood Royal Commission and jointly developed by the University and the NSW Police Service.