The internship completed by the students of the police educational institutions represents a complex, regulated activity, which involves the correlation and synchronization of the activity of several police units with the activity of the educational institution and it has not only didactic but also financial, material, economic, social, personal implications.
The elaboration of a Guide for the organization and development of the internship (O4) represents the foundation of a unitary and efficient training, in that its application will create a way of “aligning” the way of managing the situations, by the persons involved in this activity (internship tutors, internship students, internship coordinators, didactical coordinators of the internship and the internship monitors). Although each partner educational institution has specific regulations for organizing and carrying out internship, before Trident Project there was no unitary guide to unify all principles and other aspects regarding the way this basic component of the police students’ training should be organized.
At the level of the three partners, the experts’ teams were established and they analyzed the way internship is organized and carried out in their countries, identifying the common elements and the parts that could be improved. When the elaboration of this Guide started, the possibility of creating a common Guide at the level of the three partner educational institutions was analyzed. As a result of the very different needs and levels of training of the three partner institutions (revealed since the first activities of the Project aimed at creating the first intellectual product, O1 - Basic elements of the occupational standard for tutors), it was decided that, based on the exchange of good practices and information, and highlighting the common elements of the internship between the three partners, to develop three separate Guidelines for SAPSM, HdP and MRVT.
After analyzing and accepting the proposals made at partners’ level, the Guides’ principles, objectives and content were established. The structure of the intellectual output was commonly agreed, by exchanging correspondence and in on-line meetings. Each partner has carried out activities at national level and has created individually its own vision for this intellectual output, according to its national legislation, following the structure agreed and respecting the deadlines assumed. The main innovative element of this intellectual product is the very existence and implementation of such a concept, materialized in the form of a collection of three Guides applicable in three police institutions in different European countries. To ensure applicability, the development of the Guide was preceded by a comparative presentation of the common and specific elements of the internship followed by SAPSM, MRVT and HdP students.
Another novelty is that this Guide summarizes and presents in a centralized, unitary and coherent form, information in related fields specific to police work, but in interdependent relationships (e.g. vocational training, legal training, logistical issues etc.) on the organization of the internship (objectives and structure of the internship; persons involved; rights and responsibilities; criteria for assigning students to internships at territorial police units; how to select tutors; design, organization, conduct, control and monitoring of the internship, evaluation of the internship, allocated resources, documents prepared and the usefulness of the online educational platform Trident).
In the end, after a general introductory part, intellectual output O4 contains a collection of Internship Guides elaborated at the level of each of the three partners, with specific sections. Within these sections, aspects regarding the professional role of the tutor in the civic education of students and the principles applicable in contact with marginalized/vulnerable groups were approached as well. Through this Guide, SAPSM, HdP and MRVT now have at their disposal a tool based on which to know, organize and ensure the necessary conditions for carrying out the internship in the workplace, as well as to evaluate the activity of their employees who have the quality of tutors. The Guide can also be the basis for assessments made by decision-makers in the national police leadership regarding the practice activity.
Police units have now at their disposal a tool useful for knowing, organizing and ensuring the necessary conditions for carrying out internship at work place. Also, this collection of guides can serve as a model of good practice and is a useful documentary material for both institutions and decision makers and staff involved in organizing and conducting the internship related to vocational training in public order and security systems in Germany, Romania and Hungary, but also in other European countries.