CERTAIN LEGAL ASPECTS OF PRACTICAL COMPETENCIES’ FORMATION FOR APPLICANTS OF LEGAL EDUCATION

Abstract

One of the Ukraine’s priorities is to create effective mechanisms for improvement of training system in the legal sphere. Successful solutions of these problems, as well as ongoing reforms in all areas related to the training of highly qualified legal personnel in the country, the formation of civil society and implementation of the rule of law in the domestic legal system, require further improvement and raising legal education to a new level, compliance with international standards. It should be noted that a number of important steps have been taken in Ukraine to improve legal education, but this issue is currently urgent and is being discussed not only by the academic community, but also by representatives of the legal professions and communities. Ukraine’s European integration intentions and the prospect of its membership in the European Union have set a double challenge for the domestic legal education system. On the one hand, the internationalization of the economy and the formation of a common market for services have added to the problems of higher education such an aspect as the need to provide quality legal education that would meet the needs of the labor market. On the other hand, the formation of specialists with sustainable practical skills by improving the mechanisms of academic mobility based on interethnic cooperation, innovative teaching methods, continuing the development of clinical education, forming a mechanism for non-formal education in the educational process, forming and improving internship programs, expanding practice-oriented courses and the role of the applicant’s independent work as a basis for the formation of future lawyers able to act quickly in changing living conditions. Acquisition of practical skills can be divided into several groups: 1. Acquisition of practical skills in classes through the use of innovative teaching methods. 2. Formation of practical skills at the objects of internship (court, prosecutor’s office, advocacy, legal departments of enterprises, organizations, institutions, agricultural holdings). 3. Informal legal education, when the applicant independently develops their professional and practical skills through individual courses, internships, webinars, training in summer and winter law schools. The need to improve the paradigm of legal education is to move away from educational programs focused on content to educational programs focused on program learning outcomes, which will relate to the formation of general and professional competencies, the main purpose of which is the ability to effectively and responsibly solve legal problems, form professional skills for legal education applicants, lifelong learning skills, analytical skills, etc. Modern legal education should be action-oriented, i.e. it does not establish what should be studied, but establishes what competencies a person should have after graduation.