CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING OF MILITARY PROFESSIONALS AS A TOOL OF SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION TO THE CIVILIAN LIFE: SYSTEM USED IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND BEST PRACTICE OF THE FRENCH DEFENCE POLICY

The term “career“ can be defined as a career path in life, on which an individual acquires new experiences, develops his or her competences and realizes his or her personal potential. High mobility during the course of career, within which the individuals in question change their jobs, their employers, get promoted or demoted or switch to other professions, is typical for recent times. A second career, which can be defined as another phase of professional life or an assertion of an individual in a new profession as a result of voluntary or mandatory termination of the previous career, becomes a specific term in this context. However, because of the character of some professions, a change of a professional orientation is an unavoidable part of a professional life. Military professionals belong among such professional groups. Since work in the army is connected to significant health risks and limited by age, soldiers cannot perform their profession until such time when they are eligible to receive retirement pension. That is the reason why the individuals working in this profession should be assisted in search of a new career opportunity after the end of their active military career. Career education of military professionals with a focus on achievement of knowledge and skills applicable in the civilian sector is thus an inherent part of military training.

This paper focuses on military career development and training system in the Czech Republic in detail. It analyses the effectiveness of high school and university military education, military career courses and retraining courses organized by Ministry of Defence and Army of the Czech Republic with regard to the possibilities of a successful employment of former military professionals at a civil labour market after their discharge. The system of career development and training of military professionals in the Czech Republic is subsequently compared with the examples of the best practice of the French career transition system. Wide structure of activities of this developed country on behalf of a successful integration of military professionals into the civilian sector is described in this paper. In the conclusion, the paper suggests possibilities of adoption of the respective procedures, used in the French defence policy, by the Czech Republic; these procedures would contribute to an improvement of position of former military professionals at the labour market and thus help the former military professionals to find an adequate work position, which is very hard to achieve because of their very narrow professional field of expertise.