The contribution is aimed at describing the importance of competencies in the lifelong learning processes, the definition of the concept of competency and the components of a learning competency. On the basis of the above-mentioned theoretical approaches, it identifies the possibility of using the most current approaches to increase the measure of efficiency of educational and training processes in military professionals of the Army of the Czech Republic. A system of further education has been created in the Army of the Czech Republic, which is designed as a system of various courses, trainings, stays abroad and other activities. These are formulated in the concept of staff development, which allows the staff to actively approach their self-development. Part of the paper describes the project investigating some aspects of motivation to learning in military professionals and the selected results acquired using the quantitative research method.

The article presents an empirical analysis of the relation between recruitment in the allvolunteer Czech Armed Forces and selected economic indicators, including actual economic performance, situation on the domestic labour market and development of defence expenditures based on data for the period 2005-2019. The relation between military recruitment and economic performance was examined using values of GDP and GDP dynamics (GDP index). General unemployment rate, the economic activity index 1 and the military-to-general average wage ratio were used to analyse the relation of military recruitment and situation on the domestic labour market. The relation between military recruitment and defence expenditures was examined based on general defence burden (share of defence expenditures in GDP), state sector defence burden (share of defence expenditures in state budget expenditures) and year-on-year changes in defence expenditures.

The article presents some results of research . It deals with identifying the participation degree of military professionals in educational activities and identifying decisive motivational factors and barriers affecting participation in educational activities. The article is also aimed at analysing the influence of selected characteristics of age and the economic status of individuals. The analysis results show that no significant distinction in the representation of individual motives between the age groups has been proved. Statistically significant differences have been shown in the frequencies of responses expressing the evaluation of the significance of selected barriers by respondents with higher and lower military ranks.