Understanding of Teachers and Healthcare Professionals about their Professional Development

Changes in technology use and globalization are leading to significant changes in the structure of the labor market, emphasizing the need for labor market participants to learn continuously and acquire new knowledge and skills in order to adapt to a rapidly changing work environment. Economists point to the risks posed by technological development, such as the reduction of low-skilled jobs as a result of digitalization and automation processes. Although professionals working with people, such as healthcare professionals and teachers, are less exposed to the risk of automation, they are still increasingly unstable as technology and artificial intelligence compete with human experts. This means that medical and education staff will also need more targeted, regular and labor market-oriented professional development in order to remain competitive and demonstrate demand-driven performance. In line with changes in the quality standards of professional performance for healthcare professionals and teachers, changes are also taking place in how the professional development of these groups is implemented. In addition to formal development activities such as courses and seminars, the need to accept the impact of informal learning is emphasized, not only expanding the aims and content of professional development activities but also offering new learning formats. The aim of the qualitative research conducted by the authors is to study the understanding of teachers and healthcare professionals about their professional development by analyzing their answers regarding their professional development. The focus of the study has been chosen to test the assumption that healthcare professionals and teachers view their continuing education more in the context of formal training, with less emphasis on professional development through informal learning. Within the framework of the research, a survey of random respondents within the said target groups has been conducted and the answers of the respondents have been analyzed, with attention paid to the aspects of formal and informal learning. The article presents the results of the content analysis, highlighting the most important trends of study results and the problematic aspects related to the improvement of the quality of professional development.