PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION OF CIVIL SERVANTS IN BULGARIA

Abstract

Achieving the strategic goals of social development in Bulgaria, as well as solving the pressing social and
economic problems of the state, is possible provided that the effective work of public bodies is ensured. The
professional development of civil servants in the civil service in many ways leads to high level of efficiency of their
activity.
In turn, their professional development is ensured mainly by the functioning of their additional vocational education
system. The existing system at the moment practically does not fully improve the level of professionalism of civil
servants and the efficiency of their professional activities in accordance with the requirements of society and time. It
is not an exaggeration to say that the level of professionalism of a significant part of civil servants in Bulgaria is not
high enough. In this regard, one of the key aspects of improving the quality of the public services provided is the
improvement of the professionalism of the employees of the public bodies. The need for successful solutions to this
problem urgently requires a study of the role of additional professional education in the professional development of
civil servants.
Currently, insufficient scientific understanding of the role and its place in the professional development of civil
servants is a serious obstacle to the scientific justification of the orientation, content, educational results and
principles of building additional professional programs. As a result, the opportunities for additional professional
education in the formation of civil servants as professionals are not fully realized. At the same time, scientific
research is complicated by the lack of generally accepted professional standards in this field and uniform approaches
to understanding the civil servant as a professional.
The purpose of this article is to examine the state and problems facing the additional professional education of civil
servants in Bulgaria and to point out the prospects for its development. In order to achieve the goal, good practices
from selected countries of the European Union have been studied. Empirical research done in Bulgaria on the issue
in question is also summarized. From a theoretical point of view, the systemic approach to the analysis of additional
professional education has been adopted, presenting it as a social system whose structural elements actively interact
with each other..