ACC opens Public Safety Training Centre

ACC welcomed the community for an official opening of its new Public Safety Training Centre (PSTC) earlier today at its Victoria Avenue East Campus.

“Our college continues to demonstrate provincial leadership in public safety training and education and this facility builds on that,” said Karen Hargreaves, ACC’s Dean of Health and Human Services.

The space is unique in Manitoba, bringing a range of simulation and training equipment into a single environment and may be used for a number of purposes including the following:

• Scenario-based and tactical training exercises
• High-risk extraction exercises
• Physical defence training
• Training involving public and commercial vehicles
• Classroom study, lectures and private debriefing

ACC’s PSTC will be available for use by justice organizations throughout the province and across the country. Since its completion earlier this summer, the college has already welcomed the RCMP into the space where they facilitated their own specialized training programs.

The facility also lends itself to hands-on learning for students at the college, the most direct fit being with the eight-month Police Studies certificate program. While the program doesn’t teach physical defence or weapons training, the PSTC will allow students to engage in crime scene management such as photography, evidence identification, evidence handling, and arrest procedures.

Students will be put in environments that replicate what they’ll experience in their careers after graduation,” said Wayne Jacobsen, Chair of Human Services at ACC. “The program teaches them to think quickly and critically in what can sometimes be very stressful, high-pressure situations. When we say ‘students learn by doing at ACC’, we mean it.”

The college’s School of Health and Human Services continues to accept bookings for the PSTC from agencies involved in public safety training, including the RCMP, municipal police services, Canadian Border Services, and Corrections.