The article is devoted to the development of adult education, its andragogical principles and the impact on the quality of lifelong pedagogical education. The authors examined the mechanisms for improving the quality of lifelong pedagogical education by updating the content, developing and implementing innovative teaching technologies following new European guidelines and concepts in education, taking into account national educational traditions. In the article, the authors considered the basic concepts of andragogy, investigated the specifics of andragogical processes, the world experience in adult education. The authors noted that adult education today is based on continuous learning, self-education, and self-development. People will have to retrain 2-3 times in life; they will retrain at least once in adulthood. The research methodology is based on personality-activity and systematic approaches. As a result of theoretical and methodological research, the authors proposed a mechanism based on information technology (distance learning), the principles of androgynous learning and the specific features of adult learning (which the authors divided into three groups). This mechanism can increase the effectiveness of andragogical education in developing an educational trajectory. Further research is the search for ways of state financing of adragogical education and the development of indicators of its effectiveness.

The relevance of the chosen direction of research is determined by the need to improve the higher education system in accordance with the requirements of postmodernism (synergy of educational systems; non-linear construction of the educational process in order to take into account the needs of each individual, change in the nature of pedagogical interaction to ensure the symmetry of relations of all participants in the educational process, change in the status of knowledge and, as a result, the emergence of the need to improve professional competence throughout life, the orientation of education to actualizing the creative potential of future specialists, etc.). Based on the results of research by domestic and foreign scientists, the features of distance education, its advantages and disadvantages are established, which are taken into account in further scientific research. Required solutions in order to ensure high-quality distance education for music students, as well as identified topical issues: creation of an organizational model of distance learning; selection of appropriate means and tools, taking into account the peculiarities of professional training of music students, as well as substantiation of the system of methodological support of distance learning in accordance with the cycle of disciplines and the purpose of the educational program. It was noted that distance education makes it possible to introduce innovative technologies into the process of professional training of musicians, to build an individual educational trajectory, taking into account the needs of students.