The Importance of Lifelong Learning for the Development of Professional Competence of Educators

In order for an educator to develop into a competent individual and to continuously strengthen his professional identity, it is of great importance to work on all aspects of lifelong professional development. Since academic year 2009/2010, in the Republic of Croatia, educators have the opportunity to continue their education at university graduate studies in order to acquire and / or develop their competences, knowledge and skills necessary for development of professionalism. It is the responsibility of not just the individual, but a professional community, to enable development of the upbringing profession in all those areas crucial to the advancement of early and preschool education system. Formal education, in this sense, enables acquisition of competences needed to create educational policy within their own institutions. In order to evaluate in which areas and whether educators consider themselves competent, a self-assessment questionnaire for professional competences was developed. The aim of this research is to gain insight into how many educators consider themselves professionally competent for creating educational policy in the institution they work in. Furthermore, this research will examine whether there are differences in self-assessment of professional competences of educators-graduate students who are employed in preschool institutions and educators who completed undergraduate studies, also employed, and on what dimensions there is a correlation between their estimates. Key words: professional competences; educators; upbringing profession; professional identity