Additional professional education at the modern stage of digitalization: features and directions of development

The research problem and the rationale for its relevance. Currently, a new stage of digitalization of education is unfolding, characterized by the transition to distance learning technologies based on digital educational platforms as the dominant learning technology. A significant intensification of digitalization processes is a large-scale challenge to the existing pedagogical theory and practice. This fully applies to the system of additional professional education. Analysis of the current situation is a necessary prerequisite for the successful adaptation of pedagogical theory and practice to new conditions. The purpose of the study. Identification of developmental features of development of the system of additional professional education in the context of the intensification of digitalization processes and the transition to distance learning technologies based on digital educational platforms. Methodology. The study used the following complex methods: study and analysis of pedagogical literature, comparative analysis of the experience of organizing learning based on distance technologies using digital educational platforms, sociological surveys and interviews of trainees of additional professional education programs with experience in professional activities and learning in the context of digitalization. Results. The article examines the impact of the existing intensification of digitalization processes and the transition to distance learning technologies based on digital educational platforms on the educational process, including within the framework of additional professional education. The views of modern researchers on the risks and challenges associated with the need to organize the educational process in a distance form on the basis of digital educational platforms are considered. The specificity of the system of additional professional education in the new conditions is revealed. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that it has been established that the system of additional professional education in the new conditions can be considered within the framework of two different approaches - as a subject and as an object of ongoing changes. The theoretical novelty of the research lies in the developed approaches to minimizing and compensating the identified risks, in the revealed significant potential of digital informal learning technology, including informal learning in the workplace. The theoretical novelty of the research lies in the developed approaches to minimizing and compensating the identified risks, in the revealed significant potential of digital informal learning technology, including informal learning in the workplace. The practical novelty of the research lies in the fact that the identified and described duality of the role of the system of additional professional education makes it possible to build a theoretical basis for developing requirements for the content and forms of learning the corresponding additional educational programs; The developed general characteristics of the content of the corresponding learning programs of additional professional education can be used in the design and implementation of additional educational programs designed to prepare teachers of educational institutions (as graduates) to carry out educational activities in the context of distance learning based on digital educational platforms.