The Importance of Communication Skills in Police Lifelong Learning

Abstract

Continuing professional development in policing is of particular importance as it allows further professional and personal development of members of the Police Force. Academy of the Police Force in Bratislava provides various courses in lifelong learning programmes for active police officers. The focus is also laid on the development of language competence in several languages (English, Russian, German) as especially in times of migration crises, the communication in foreign languages plays a pivotal role in the execution of daily duties of police officers not only in Slovakia. The contribution offers insights into foreign language education offered within the lifelong learning programmes at the Academy of the Police Force, which actively reflect the current needs of police practice, in particular with the aim to help and assist Foreign and Border Police service. Not only the language courses aimed at the development of communication competences in foreign language are presented but also the fruits of mutual cooperation between the Department of Languages of the Academy of the Police Force in Bratislava and various units of the Foreign and Border Police that resulted in outcomes which are actively used in police practice are described in detail as they became the tools widely used at national level. The stress is also laid on the request from the police practice to develop communication skills in foreign language competence in both official and non-official communication with the third-country nationals arriving into the territory of the Slovak Republic3 mainly due to the war conflict in Ukraine and the result that was embodied in the dictionary of multilingual communication that is currently in use in detention facilities forms an integral part of the current contribution.