DISCRETENESS AND LIFELONG LEARNING

Abstract

Professional education does not mean only the period of training for this or that profession in institutions; it usually runs through the whole life of a person. Being the subject of public relations, during his life a person contacts with people of different professions. The person tries various occupations and ultimately makes his choice. After that, the person enters a vocational school to study for a chosen occupation. On getting diploma, alumni start professional activities, and their professional education continues. They strive to attain acme in a chosen professional field. Thus, we can say that vocational training has a continuous character, and it consists of a series of successive discrete stages, each of them forming a personal attitude to the profession and personal qualities demanded in this or that area. All of the discrete steps are equally important. Therefore, lifelong professional learning is an entity composed of a number of discrete wholes, and we should consider this type of education from the standpoint of the philosophy of holism. With that, a continuous education, as well as its discrete wholes, includes both cognitive and practical components, professional knowledge combined with practice. The ratio of theory and practice at different stages of individual integration into profession is different, but the process always represents a combination of a secondary and professional education.