ТHEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS AND IDENTIFICATION OF GENERAL COMPETENCES OF COUNSELORS IN PENAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

General competences are a dynamic combination of knowledge, understanding,
skills, abilities, attitudes and values that are necessary for personal achievement and
development. They are typical of every person regardless of their scope of work. They
develop during the period of formal education and represent the basis for further learning
and development as an integral part of lifelong learning. Counselors in penal institutions
have already formed attitudes and opinions on general competences. Counselors consider
systemic competences (ability to adapt to new situations, learning ability, ability for
practical application of knowledge, ability for persistence when achieving highest quality
of work and creativity) to have a slight advantage over interpersonal, instrumental and
general specifi c competences and to represent a fi ne basis for further learning and development.
Owing to the complexity of competences and the complex process of identifi cation,
testing and comparison of competences as to the fact that counselors value systemic
ones more, which are known to be more complex, it is advisable to check these results on
a larger sample and to open a qualitative discussion on counselors’ competences in penal
institutions within the context of lifelong learning.