Study of students' empathy as a factor of professional appropriateness for work in the service sector.

Universities play a leading role in solving the problem of personality development. This problem is not limited to intellectual development, but presupposes, at a minimum, the need for spiritual and emotional development. One of the basic categories inextricably linked with spiritual and emotional development is empathy. Empathy, which combines cognitive and emotional mental processes, is an important condition for building effective communications. Therefore, in those areas of activity that are distinguished by the type "person - person", it becomes a factor of professional competence. The purpose of the work is to study the level of empathy development in students of service areas of training. The study was conducted on students of the Belgorod State National Research University and the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University. The test "Diagnostics of the level of empathy" by V.V. Boyko was used as a basic methodology. The results of the study showed that 65% of students have an underestimated or very low level of empathy, which predetermines the need to increase the attention of the administration and teachers of universities to the development of this personal quality of students by means of educational and educational work.