My work is devoted to the determining of the professional competences of a secondary school teacher and their development in the system of teacher lifelong education in modern democratic society. Overall research questions Modern development of the pedagogical component of educational environment shows the necessity of modernization of general paradigm in pedagogical education. Graduates from higher educational institutions must have an opportunity in very short terms of adaptations to the modern conditions to achieve the best results in their professional activity. For these reasons, when we are speaking about teachers education for efficient professional activity, such important and basic for teachers categories as “skills, abilities and knowledge” must be added by additional categories which would connect teachers theoretical background with their practical experience. Today European scientists consider the term “competence” to be such category. Judging from our research we came to the conclusion that in European educational environment the concept of “competence” is an evaluative one and it denotes the ability of a teacher to use his or her knowledge, skills and personal qualities in their own professional activities to achieve the highest and the most efficient results. We have investigated that Ukraine has no unified typology of the teachers professional competences characteristics. In most cases enumeration of teachers competences in Ukrainian documents comprise references to European documents. The profound analysis of these documents made it possible to formulate in our research the model of professional competent secondary school teacher. Generally speaking teacher professional competences should comprise: 1)key competences; 2)basic competences; 3)specialized competences. Having these competences a teacher should perform his activities at school effectively, successfully and professionally. Objectives We must press the point that almost all the European countries of today (and Ukraine is not the exception) are conducting the transition to the competence educational models. For the most detailed understanding of the competence approach in the system of teachers education and formation of the most efficient educational model it is necessary to analyze all of the professional competences of teachers and to identify, define and classify them into one general scheme, acceptable by every European state. Theoretical Framework of our research is based on the analysis of: the international documents of UNESCO, European Council, Organization of International Cooperation and Development, International Organization of Labour and others; the Ukrainian scientists works devoted to the problem of teachers’ proficiency, skills and competences. They are: Nichkalo N. G.,Zinkovskij U.F., Mirskih G.O., Gushlevska I.V., Sitnik O.P.;

For achieving of the basic objectives of our research consisting in formulating of the unified system of teacher professional competences, we use the whole complex of complementary research methods which can be described in the following way: theoretical methods of analysis, synthesis, substantiation, generalization, systematization of theoretical and practical research data; empirical methods of observation, evaluation, testing, questionnaire design and pedagogical experiment; statistical methods of mathematical evaluation of quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Moreover methodological basis of our research lies in scientific theory of knowledge or epistemology dealing on one hand with relationships and correlation between all the processes in objective reality (so we consider that all the phenomena in educational environment of European countries are closely connected with each other) and on the other hand – with the unity of theory and practice.

I want to press the point that as the economic, trade, and communication links and both social and scientific contacts between different countries in the European environment become more powerful and stronger with each year in the changing XXI century, educators are more than ever on the way of recognizing the value of learning, acquiring and forming new knowledge from the experience of others. We consider that the research on professional competences of a teacher is closely connected with the development and improving Ukrainian pedagogical education and teacher training system. Using European experience and initiatives of democratic countries we can strengthen transparency and recognition of qualifications and competences of Ukrainian specialists of pedagogical profile in European community.