I joined the Specials at 37, and I was the one of the oldest on the course. The majority were 18-25 years old. I passed with flying colours though.
You don't need a degree. You need to pass 3 entrance exams (from memory they were Maths, English and Information gathering). You need to be very fit. Expect to be very badly bruised all over from the weapons training. I was black and blue from head to toe. You will also have CS spray sprayed in to your eyes on the course (so you know what to expect).
Ours was 13 weeks training, every Saturday (all day), Sunday (all day) and Wednesday evenings (6pm-9pm), and you cannot miss any sessions. There were also written assessments throughout, you had to do group presentations (you presenting to the rest) and a final real life scenarios assessment. After 13 weeks committment, some failed at the final hurdle.
You'll also be expected to visit the morgue and look at lots of bodies in various stages of decomposition. And watch a few autopsies.
I was fine with all of this.
You will also have to attend regular update training every year. I can't remember how many courses now, but if you don't keep up you'll get booted out. You will also attend physical training annually, or lose the position.
What I wasn't prepared for was the following:
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The state in which a certain portion of the population live. I'm talking houses without heat/curtains/carpet, absolutely filthy homes with hungry children and people who are on drugs and beating each other up, generally never having worked ever and just live like pigs. Almost every call is to homes like this. In 5 years, I only ever went to a handful of homes where the people were nice and the home was clean.
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Regular Officers generally don't want you there. You don't know what you are doing (not to their standard), and you can't effectively corroborate their notebook, as you likely won't be working when a case comes to court. You can often feel like a spare part, hanging around the station until someone takes you on.
You will find yourself in some pretty precarious positions, where you have no idea if you're going to make it out of there unharmed.
I did it for 5 years. I quit when I was 43, as I was starting my own business and couldn't commit to the hours.
I am glad that I did it, the experience is like nothing else, however, I'm 49 now, and I don't think I could physically do it now, and I'm a pretty fit lady. 12 hour shifts, walking for miles and miles, wearing a kit that weighs 1.5 stone....it's not easy, not easy at all.