The thesis generalizes main tendencies and features of theory and practice of the concept, pedagogical system of stage professional training of officers of the State Criminal and Executive Service of Ukraine and pedagogical conditions that ensure the implementation of this system, as well as the results of experimental verification of their effectiveness.
According to the results of the analysis of pedagogical theory and educational practice, the concept of stage professional training of officers of the State Criminal and Executive Service of Ukraine has been substantiated. It is based on the necessity to develop a system that ensures the continuous process of formation and development of the professional competence of officers at the first (bachelor’s) and second (master’s) levels of higher education. This system should ensure that officers are trained to perform management and organizational, educational, legal, administrative, economic and tactical-operational activities in the penitentiary system.
The realization of the author’s concept is provided by the pedagogical system of stage professional training of officers of the State Criminal and Executive Service of Ukraine in higher education institutions – a set of certain elements and interdependent subsystems, developed on the principle of multilevel (subordination), which in unity ensure the functioning of the educational process.
Structurally, the pedagogical system consists of four main blocks (purpose-oriented, content, organizational and methodological, analytical and resultative), which are implemented in complex, taking into account the peculiarities of the stages of studying process in the institutions of higher education of Ukraine – organizational and purpose (1–2 years of studying at the first (bachelor’s) level of higher education), reproductive and practical (3–4 years of studying at the first (bachelor) level of higher education), creative and practical (5–6 years of studying at the second (master’s) level of higher education).
The effective functioning of the pedagogical system of stage professional training of the State Criminal and Executive Service officers of Ukraine is provided by pedagogical conditions that have a significant impact on the formation of all components of professional competence: curriculum design of professional training of officers of the State Criminal and Executive Service taking into account the context of future professional activity and the performance of their main organizational, management and legal, administrative, economic and tactical-operational activities); scientific and methodological facilities for the development of lecturers’ professional skills of the disciplines of vocational training; integration of general and vocational training by means of interdisciplinary connections and step-by-step solution of cadets and trainees’ tasks by complicating their content in each course of study; development of motivation of cadets and trainees in the institutions of higher education of the State Criminal and Executive Service of Ukraine by applying forms and methods of modeling typical and non-standard situations of future professional activity; improvement of the system of quality assessment and monitoring of the professional training of cadets and trainees in the institutions of higher education of the State Criminal and Executive Service of Ukraine; management of self-study and cognitive activity of cadets and trainees at all levels of higher education; development cadets and trainees’ leadership skills.
In the study the structure and content of professional competence of the officers of the State Criminal and Executive Service of Ukraine have been improved (which is defined as a dynamic combination of professional knowledge, skills, value-based orientations, professionally important qualities, motives, professional personality orientation and the ability to carry out tasks related to the implementation of public policy in the sphere of execution of criminal penalties limited by the officer’s powers, established tasks and duties, training, professional and personal development acquired in the educational institution) taking into account the main types of activities of officer’s staff. The structure of professional competence combines five major components – cognitive, functional, motivational, value and personal. It was presented the methods of diagnostics of professional competence of the officers of the State Criminal and Executive Service of Ukraine based on the use of criteria (cognitive, activity, motivational-volitional, axiological and professional-personal), their levels, indicators and characteristics (low, medium, sufficient and high).
Based on a comparative analysis of foreign experience the organizational-and-pedagogical and didactic features of the professional training of prison officers in the EU and the USA have been highlighted.
