Tasks of education related to development of cadets’ professional identity

Introduction. The reform in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs tackled the question of increasing public trust to police officers, which is, unfortunately, not a reality yet. The possible reason for it can be a low degree of law enforcement officers’ professional identification with policeman profession. In this regard, the emphasis is made on the problem of increasing the quality of preparing cadets of educational organizations in the system of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. One of the factors of quality improvement is a professional self-identity, which is the basis for developing professional identity. The aim is to establish the level of the cadets’ initial professional identity, tasks and conditions of its development. Materials and methods. The author conducted the questioning of first-year cadets (158 respondents) studying at different educational organizations of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (Irkutsk, Barnaul, Omsk, Moscow). Results and Discussion. The questioning enabled the author to establish the level of the cadets’ initial professional identity, their status, influence of the initial professional training and oath taking on self-identification of their status and further desire to continue education at the educational organization; individual and professional qualities which help the cadets identify their membership in the Internal Affairs bodies. The researcher managed to reveal the interaction of professional identity development and professionalization as the correspondence of individual features and social impacts resulted from recognition of professional requirements, ethical norms and values in law enforcement environment. Conclusions. Cadets’ identity at the educational organizations in the system of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs comprises the following aspects: orientation to the social environment and unique manifestations of a person; formation of professionally important qualities established according to the performed tasks. Identity is a dynamical structure, which development can be linear and uniform.