Abstract:

In the last decades, people in the Czech Republic have been increasingly endangered by implications of the so-called emergency situations. Emergency situations must not be underestimated; instead, we have to be ready for them as thus we can better deal with their consequences. We may not even notice it but experience shows that a well-informed and prepared person can assess a situation more realistically, prevent an emergency situation and if needed help not only himself or herself but also his/her family, neighbours, classmates or colleagues. On the basis of that the authors of the study carried out a long-term (2015–2019) research mapping the level of selected competencies in students at the Faculty of Education, Charles University, studying the Secondary School Teaching within the Lifelong Learning Programme. The research study aims to find out whether and to what extent the selected students are competent to protect a person in an emergency situation, understand possible gaps in these competencies and establish corresponding training needs. The research sample consists of 600 students of the Lifelong Learning Programme for the time being. A quantitative method was used (questionnaire) in the research. The respondents completed a questionnaire consisting of two parts. The first part focused on selected attitudes, opinions and experience and the second part contained a didactic test.

The results obtained so far show that respondents failed the most in questions on the identification of warning siren sounds, hazardous substances or warning signs or in what to do in case of radiological accident and what to pack in an emergency go bag.

With regard to the size of the present sample and continuation of the research, it is certainly not possible to generalise the presented research. However, the authors believe that based on the existing Czech legislation and the results of the research study, it is necessary to specify the content and implementation conditions of a future teacher training programme (lifelong learning course graduates) regarding people protection in emergency situations at the Faculty of Education, Charles University.

Keywords:

Emergency situations, lifelong learning, competencies.