With the first composite company formed on June 15, 2003, regional attachments of PTU platoons increased from 30 to 65 weeks. This reduced the number of companies trained by PTU Headquarters every year from eight to four. This schedule meant that every 13 weeks, the four land Regions each contributed one platoon to form a composite training company. After training, each platoon returned to their "home" Region, thus allowing disbandment of one of the existing resident platoons.

In mid 2008, under the four companies per year model, the Force was finding it difficult to implement Personnel Wing's structured career path objective for PTU to be the second mandatory posting for Police Constables. PTU Headquarters also had concerns about possible future lack of sufficient contemporarily trained officers within the three-tier structure. In order to address these issues, PTU Headquarters proposed an increase in the annual rate of training throughput of composite companies.

In May and October last year respectively, the Senior Directorate Group and the Force Establishment and Manning Committee endorsed a proposal to increase the training throughput at PTU Headquarters from four to six composite training companies per year.

Under this new proposal, training companies will remain composite in nature and will be formed once every eight weeks rather than once every 13 weeks, as it is currently the case. The duration of the "training" period will remain unchanged, consisting of a four-week cadre course and 12 weeks of company training. The length of regional attachment will be progressively reduced from the current 65 weeks experienced under the four-company cycle, down to 60 weeks for platoons trained under "F" Coy 1/2008, 55 weeks for those trained under "F" Coy 2/2008, 50 weeks for those trained under "F" Coy 3/2008, and ultimately to 40 weeks for those trained under "F" Coy 1/2009, as well as those in all companies thereafter under the six-company cycle.

Under the new throughput, there will be six occasions a year, each lasting for four weeks, when two full composite companies will be undergoing training concurrently at PTU Headquarters. Odd number training companies such as 1/2009, 3/2009 and 5/2009 will be named "Foxtrot" whilst even number training companies, such as 2/2009, 4/2009 and 6/2009, will be named "Golf".

Tactical training is an essential element for officers' career developments

Under the new training throughput, two full composite companies will undergo training concurrently for four weeks at PTU Headquarters

Getting ready for tough training

Warming up for the tough training ahead