The dissertation summarizes the results of comparative-pedagogical research on the theory and practice of preschool teachers' professional education in Western European countries. The preschool teacher's professional education is analyzed as a holistic, continuous and differentiated system within the framework of basic and postgraduate vocational education. Based on comparative binary and comparative analysis of national and European scientific literature the essence of correctly interpreting the key categories of research "preschool teacher professional education" was distinguished and it is understood as a strategic complex multifunctional process of continuous professional teacher education that generally is based on competency paradigm of education and therefore involves forming of professional competence of persons who are directly involved in the field of pre-school education, practically carry out the organization of educational activities with children from birth to the beginning of the school, and also people who are gaining the education, which will provide official right to organize such activities in different types of pre-school educational establishment. Among the priority of Western European countries' scientific approaches to preschool teachers' professional education and training the following are defined as the most appropriate: humanistic, cultural and competence approaches in the context of which technological, informational-communicational, informational-communicative, practice- investigative- oriented and modular approaches are realized; the concept of vocational training, which is based on social interaction, is also used and in the context of which dialogic approach, coach-, flash- and GRIFIC approach are realized. The main areas of the educational policy and emerging qualifications in the field of preschool teachers' professional education in Western European countries are: providing of basic education of practitioners in the preschool education sector; providing of graduate education in accordance with the implementation of the Bologna Convention etc. An important tool of the European educational policy in professional of preschool teachers' education is the EQF, which regulates the standards forming process of teacher education in general. Professional standards of teacher education in Western Europe contributes to the specification and development of preschool teachers' professional profiles in Europe and are characterized by variability and determine the multi-directions of training. It is determined that professional training of preschool teachers in the countries of Western Europe is in the process of continuous improvement, which is explained by intensive transformations in higher education systems of European countries. Changes take place in four main areas: unification of professional training for a three-leveled structure of higher education (bachelor - master - doctor); ensuring the quality of higher education through the introduction of standards agreed with the EQF; mutual recognition of qualifications and periods of study offered by various higher educational institutions of Western European countries; professionalization, which is aimed to create favorable conditions for the professional development and career growth of pre-school teachers in the system of post-graduate education in the context of formal professional education (university or institute certificates, diplomas, certificates of advanced training, etc.) and informal vocational training (centers of professional development, associations, public organizations). It is distinguished that the basic qualification requirements for preschool teachers in the Western European countries are the two stages of professional education - the first is the obtaining a bachelor's degree, the second the master's degree, the third as the higher level - obtaining the educational level of the doctor of philosophy. The system-and-holistic analysis of preschool teachers' professional education system of the Western Europe countries of has shown that there are three models of professional training at the present stage: consecutive, parallel and or integrative (special, alternative, differentiated). The functioning of pedagogical education models in the preschool sector is provided by a wide network of educational institutions that are determined by variability in types (higher schools, higher professional schools, higher pedagogical schools, colleges, institutes, universities), forms of ownership (state, private, religious, public), terms of training (from one to five or six years) offering different educational degrees (bachelor, master, doctor) and programs that are multidisciplinary and multi-profiled but at the same time very similar in name and modules content. It is distinguished, that the content of preschool teachers' education is determined by the tendency to the reorganization development of new curricula and its types' diversification. In the procedural aspect, high-quality preschool teachers vocational training of Western European countries becomes possible by creating a reflexive environment, the essential features of which are a problem situation aimed at cooperation, relations involving the use of one person's experience of the other, which are the determining characteristics organizational and pedagogical support for the training of preschool teachers in Western European countries. Based on comparative analysis of preschool teachers' professional education in Western Europe and Ukraine the implementation of progressive ideas of Western European experience into Ukrainian system were outlined: the concept of vocational education and training based on social interaction; implementing educational reforms aimed at the unification process of training and practice of European countries; optimization of terms of training; coordination principles of expansion towards the centralization of the functioning of higher educational institutions, the creation of effective management interaction between the structural components of the network of vocational training institutions with educational institutions of the system of preschool education and institutions of the management system; optimization and improvement of organizational and pedagogical support; enrichment and diversification of innovative forms of organization of educational process in the process of obtaining basic teacher education and further education etc. The results of the study allowed developing the European oriented model and conception of preschool teachers' professional education in Ukraine.
