Fast A. Professional Training of Masters in Public Administration at US Universities

The research discloses the features in the professional training of Masters in Public Administration at US universities. It has been found that educational literature widely covers different aspects of competency-based approach to training civil servants within the framework of which the specificity of public control and administration causes the need to search for novel approaches to shaping the content of a newly created master’s course (shifting from state management to public control and administration), to redefine the core of management behaviour (public sector) and to create a list of professional competences (intellectual, functional, social) to ensure the effectiveness of professional performance in state and self-governing bodies of public authority and management in the public sector. Practical experience has been introduced with some mechanisms for improving professional training of public servants taking into account international standards. The content of such key concepts as state management, public control, public policy, public administration, public service, public management, public services has been semantically analyzed. The achievements and contradictions in the interpretation of their essence and correspondence with international analogues in the sociopolitical discourse have been specified. It has been concluded that the course on public control and administration in Ukraine corresponds to the course on public administration in the USA. The main characteristics in organizing the professional training of Masters in Public Administration at US universities are the following: specialization (narrowly specialized areas of training); professionalization (dissemination of practice-oriented courses); high demand (the applied nature of placements / internships); decentralization (affiliation to different structural subdivisions of educational institutions); depersonalization (cultivation of the student’s professional personality in accordance with an adopted standard of professional training); gender equality; employment in the public sector. The system of the professional training for Masters in Public Administration is a well-developed combination of interconnected educational institutions, institutes, scientific councils, organizations, research centres, centres for career development and management bodies, which efficiently solve the objectives of professional education. The analysis of curricula content proves that the professional training of Masters in Public Administration is rather interdisciplinary and is based on the integration of general scientific, professional and specialized knowledge, as well as a wide introduction of electives. The content of master’s courses on public administration is standardized and allows developing professional competences (universal, specialized, professional) as well as professionally important qualities focused on research and professional training, fulfilment of career opportunities and professional development in the public sector. The professional training of Masters in Public Administration can be effectively organized with the help of such specific principles as career orientation; social dialogue; the priority of self-study; interdisciplinary integration; subject-subject interactions; communicative orientation; the connection between educational and research activities; professional and motivational orientation of learning towards research activities; feedback; systematic development of research skills. The quality of public servants’ professional training is assured through a creative combination of traditional and innovative teaching forms, methods and technologies. Individual aspects in the professional training of Masters in Public Administration in Ukraine and the USA have been comparatively studied. In such a way, common approaches and differences have been identified. The ways to implement innovative ideas of US experience in Ukraine have been justified.