Abstract:

Climate change causes an increased incidence of disasters with serious impacts on society. In order to minimize these impacts, high demands are placed on investments in adaptation and mitigation measures. Representatives of the public administration and policy makers are responsible for decisions and choosing the optimal variant of the measure. However, they often do not have the necessary education and skills in the area of crisis management and/or in the economic field. This is where education in crisis management and economics plays an important role. The goal of the Faculty of Security Engineering of the University of Žilina (Slovakia) is the higher education of students in the field of security and safety (study programs: crisis management, security management and rescue services) with the intention of raising future experts in the field. Focus of the education within study program crisis management is on procedures of disasters and crisis situations solution as well as the related economic education. The paper analyzes the composition of the subjects of the study programs provided (with an emphasis on the crisis management program) with the aim of identifying subjects in which students acquire (1) the necessary knowledge, skills and competences to deal with various disasters and crisis situations, including events arising as a result of climate change, and in adition, (2) the knowledge and skills needed to evaluate the economic efficiency of the measures taken in dealing with the given events. The need and possibilities of changing the subject structure in order to address the needs of practice and the requirements of the labor market are also analyzed, especially from the point of view of the applicability of graduates of the Faculty of Security Engineering of the University of Žilina on the labor market.

Keywords:

Education, curriculum, practice needs, crisis management, economics, climate change.