LIFELONG LEARNING - A FACTOR OF PROFESSIONAL REALIZATION

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of full professional realization of the personality based on permanent enrichment of knowledge, skills and competences. The modern man lives in a society defined as a "knowledge society." In order to keep up-to-date in the labor market, where some professions are losing their importance and the need for new ones is created, they are faced with the need to learn throughout their whole life. The article presents the results of an empirical study. The study covers 66 graduate students in a one-year specialization to acquire a new vocational qualification "teacher", who study at the Faculty of Education at Trakia University in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. The results indicate that the sustainability of the idea of lifelong learning is being considered and realized by representatives of different generations. The age of the respondents varies over a very wide range – from 23 to 56 years of age. The persons surveyed clearly differentiate the strengths and weaknesses of their studies at the university. They express their satisfaction with the theoretical and practical training they have received in the higher education institution. They unambiguously define their motives for acquiring a new professional qualification – from the realized opportunity for a new professional realization, competitiveness in the labour market, desire for change, to the realization of an unfulfilled dream.