The article deals with the problem of shaping professional communicative competence of penal officers. The aim of the article is the selection of the pedagogical conditions promoting realization of model of formation of professional communicative competence anomg cadets of the universities of the Federal Penal Service. For realization of research tasks the following methods of research were used: the analysis and generalization of pedagogical, methodical literature on the work problem; the synthesis of pedagogical experience, modeling. Results. The author considers pedagogical conditions of realization of the program of formation of professional communicative competence among cadets of the universities of the Federal Penal Service of Russia. The author proposes to form the professional communicative competence of cadets throughout the entire training in a departmental institution of higher education in stages, in a comprehensive manner, using specially designed interactive teaching methods that reflect the specifics of the future profession and simulate situations of professional communication. Based on the experience of the Perm Institute of the Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments of the Russian Federation, the author pays special attention to the peculiarities of professional communicative competence, depending on the profile of the criminal-executive system: “Organization of the guard and convoy”, “Organization of the regime”, “Kinology”. An important role in the formation of this competence is the organisation of self-education of cadets and improvement of communicative training of the teaching staff and the command staff of higher education institutions of the Federal Penal Service of Russia. Conclusion. Realization of the examined pedagogical conditions will allow to form the professional communicative competence of cadets within the framework of the educational process in the departmental higher educational institution.