Internal Security Studies in the Process of Preparing Human Resources for the Institutions Responsible for Security. Preliminary and Comparative Studies – Selected Problems

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this discussion is to present selected research results which were aimed at obtaining answers to the following questions: Who are internal security students? Where do they come from? What are they guided by in choosing their field of study? What do they intend to do after gradua-tion? How much time do they spend on self-study? Design and methods: The survey was carried out in two stages. In late 2014/early 2015, a preliminary study was conducted on a sample of 350 stu-dents from five universities, and in 2017 a sample of 408 respondents from 4 universities was covered by a comparative study. The research used one of the quantitative research methods, which is a diagnostic survey. The research material was collected using a questionnaire containing 25 questions, including 3 open-ended ones.Results: The results of the survey were analysed and synthesised following statistical analysis using the Statistica 10.0 software with the assumed significance level of p ≤ 0.5. The study results confirmed the research hypotheses that students in areas related to safety and security come from a va-riety of social backgrounds, are age-diverse and started their studies at various times after passing their secondary school leaving exams. A significant number of students, not only of part-time studies but also of full-time studies, combine studies with professional work.Conclusions: The results obtained in the study and the conclusions drawn from them provide a highly valuable source of both theoretical and practical information. They enable universities to prepare changes in the programmes, methods and forms of education and to plan the recruitment process of secondary school graduates. Research shows that the majority of students of internal security come from small towns and the main reason for undertaking studies in these fields is their intention to find a job that is primarily compatible with their field of study, in uniformed services or in public administration. There is also a significant proportion of students who have taken up studies with no relation to future work. A negative phenomenon is the fact that over 50% of students spend less than 2 hours a day on self-study. This puts into question not only the level and requirements set for students, but also their acquired level of expertise needed to pursue a professional career.

Keywords

• internal security
• human resources management
• business continuity management
• security studies