Formation of future lawyers’ self-educational competence as a component of their professional training

Abstract

The article substantiates the essence of future lawyers’ self-educational competence and determines its place in the structure of their professional training. Future lawyers’ self-educational competence is defined as an integrative personal quality that combines motivation for continuous professional development with the ability to independently acquire, critically comprehend, update, and apply legal knowledge, effectively organize one’s own learning and cognitive activities, and engage in continuous professional self-improvement in accordance with the current requirements of legal practice.

The author identifies the following key factors contributing to the development of future lawyers’ self-educational competence: effective organization of the educational process; fostering intrinsic motivation for self-education, a conscious attitude toward learning, and readiness for independent knowledge acquisition; ensuring interdisciplinary integration and combining the teaching of academic disciplines with educational and character-building activities; creating a positive socio-psychological environment that promotes students’ active cognitive engagement; and providing objective assessment of students’ academic achievements. The implementation of these factors contributes to aligning professional training with the contemporary needs of legal practice and the labor market while simultaneously ensuring that future lawyers’ educational needs are met, supporting their professional self-determination, and fostering their readiness for lifelong self-development.

Self-educational competence is one of the key components of the professional training of future lawyers. It reflects an individual's readiness and ability to purposefully, independently, and continuously acquire, update, critically comprehend, and practically apply legal knowledge, as well as to develop professionally significant qualities and engage in lifelong self-improvement.

The effective development of self-educational competence requires the purposeful organization of the educational process. Alongside traditional teaching methods, it is advisable to employ modern pedagogical technologies, educational resources, and other instructional tools that stimulate students’ independent cognitive activity and foster their readiness for continuous professional learning.