Educating custom officers supervisors: how do they experience their role?
ISSN: 1366-5626
Article publication date: 7 June 2024
Issue publication date: 24 June 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine customs officers’ perception of the role as supervisor before and after completing formal training in practice supervision. Owing to changes in the education of customs officers, their role as supervisors has changed, necessitating formal training.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire with three open-ended questions was given to all participants to answer before and immediately after the training. Responses were given anonymously. Additionally, free text of the participants’ reflections on the supervision method and challenges within supervision was analysed.
Findings
Four categories, including subcategories, emerged from the thematic analysis: competence in practice supervision; socialising and integration; motivation; and frame conditions. Analysis of the feedback shows that the education is experienced/perceived as a contribution to their personal development, learning and motivation, leading to more reflection on their own practice and a stronger focus on contributing to the students’ learning process and shaping them as future colleagues.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, there are no similar studies within this group, and the results of this study may lead to greater awareness regarding the supervisor role and the quality of customs and border management education and, thereby, higher quality in professional practice as customs officers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Tonje Breien Dietrichson, Norwegian Customs, for being responsible for the data collection before the start of the supervision education at the Norwegian Customs in 2021. Further, we wish to thank Adjunct Professor Håkon Bjorheim Abrahamsen, UiS, for valuable comments and suggestions to an earlier version of this article.
Disclosure statement: The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.
Citation
Abrahamsen, E.B. and Dagsland, Å.H.B. (2024), "Educating custom officers supervisors: how do they experience their role?", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 319-334. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-10-2023-0166
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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