Scientific paper ID 986 : 2014/3

The paper presents the main stages in transport staff training in Bulgaria for the period of 125 years after the establishment of the railway school (1889). The acceptance of the military (Prussian) model is in compliance with the limited economic resources of the reestablished Bulgarian state and the existing practices of railway staff training imposed by the European military doctrine during the second half of the 19th century. After the World War I, due to army reduction, a change was made passing to civil education in the State Railway School, which was founded in 1922. During the following years combining the two forms of education or switching from one form to another, the traditions gradually outlined the unique Bulgarian model of staff training for the needs of railways, land transport and related businesses. The achievements of the Todor Kableshkov University of Transport in the last two decades under the conditions of reforms in higher education in Bulgaria and Europe have proved its image as “a good practice” attracting the interest of more and more foreign academic institutions willing to cooperate both in the fields of teaching and research.