Police Pathways Success for Coby
By OBHS | Posted: Thursday October 30, 2025
The staff at the Otago Secondary Tertiary College (OSTC) and the Dunedin Police would like to congratulate OBHS Year 12 student, Coby Booth, on his successful completion of the Police Pathway Programme this year.
The Police Pathway Programme aims to provide high school students with a basic understanding of the knowledge, skills and experiences to prepare students for employment opportunities within NZ Police. Every Friday this year, Coby attended Otago Polytechnic with 15 other students from a range of Otago Secondary Schools and engaged in a variety of practical activities, projects, experiences, and assessments. Students cover a range of topics, including career options within NZ Police, mental health awareness, communication skills, communicating with people from other cultures, formal and informal interview skills, teamwork, and public speaking.
Coby was successful in passing all of the police assessments and achieved all of the credits offered, including 20 credits at Level 3, and 5 credits at Level 4.
Coby impressed the police staff with his investigative mindset and ability to solve crime scene scenarios quickly, as well as his formal interview skills when interviewing ‘suspects’ (police staff role plays) and using evidence he had researched to gain a confession – skills staff learn during their training at Police College.
Special mention must be made of Coby’s outstanding achievement in the Police Physical Competency Test. This is a timed physical assessment for Police Staff where participants must complete a 400-metre obstacle course involving 10 tasks that aim to assess a recruit’s ability to perform occupation-specific tasks. Challenges include pushing a 450kg trailer, sprinting 200m, walking on a raised balance beam, crawling under hurdles, climbing through a window, jumping a 6-foot wall, dragging a 75kg dummy, and climbing a 2.2 metre fence. Coby’s time was not only the fastest PCT time in the whole class, but stands as the fastest time of any student to have completed the course since the Police Pathways Programme began five years ago! A very impressive achievement!
When asked about Coby’s participation in the course this year, Senior Sergeant Craig Dinnissen said, “Coby has been a standout in the Police Pathways course this year. His enthusiasm and commitment have been evident in everything he’s taken part in, from leading the way in the Police Physical Competency Test with the top student time we’ve seen in five years, to fully engaging in the crime scene investigation, module work, group projects and in daily class life. He’s shown real commitment and resilience, and it’s been a pleasure to see him thrive in this environment. Coby’s journey is a great example of how the programme supports diverse learners to thrive and explore a future in policing”.
A special prizegiving was held at the Dunedin Central Police Station on the final day of the course, where Snr Sgt Dinnissen awarded Coby one of the PRIMED values awards for students who have consistently demonstrated the police values of Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Commitment to working with Māori and the Treaty, Empathy and Diversity.
It is great to see Coby following in the footsteps of OBHS old-boy, Sunjeep Singh, who received the same award two years ago when he, too, completed the Police Pathways Programme as an OBHS student.
Below are a selection of photos showing some of the fantastic experiences Coby had as part of the course.
Unfortunately, this is the final year the Police Pathways Programme is being offered at OSTC due to the government investing their funding into other forms of recruitment. However, this OSTC programme is being replaced by the popular Sport, Exercise and Health (Level 3) course open to Years 12 and 13 students from Otago. For more information on the OSTC programmes, please visit: https://www.op.ac.nz/study/pathways/otago-secondary-tertiary-college
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