Formation of the Professionally Significant Skills and Competencies of Future Police Officers during Studying at Higher Educational Institutions

The analysis of the activity of police officers, who had to deal with armed and aggressive offenders, was analyzed. The conducted research substantiated the original methodology of the preparation of future police officers for contact with an offender, armed with a cold weapon, and tested its efficiency. The essence of the original methodology is to form the future police officers’ professionally significant skills and competencies to apply coercive measures on the basis of the acquired special theoretical knowledge, introduced into the educational process of tactical and special training of simulated situational tasks and to develop professionally important psychological qualities. The study involved cadets, having entered educational institutions in 2016 (n=227), who were studying at the National Academy of Internal Affairs (Kyiv, Ukraine). The experimental (EG, n=111) and control (CG, n=116) groups were formed. The efficiency of the original methodology was evaluated by the indicators of theoretical and practical readiness of cadets and by the psychological qualities’ development level. The results of the experiment showed the efficiency of the original methodology in comparison to the traditional one: theoretical preparedness of the EG cadets was improved by 46.8%, CG – by 2.4%; practical readiness of the EG cadets was increased by 37.3%, CG – by 5.1%. The high level of cadets’ professionally significant skills acquired during studying contributed to the improvement of the efficiency of their future professional activity.