In recent decades, deep changes have been taking place in the field of education, caused by the new needs of economic development in the conditions of globalization and the spread of information and communication technologies. Advanced training is the main type of development of the professional competence of management personnel and specialists whose activities are related to the organization and implementation of fire safety and civil protection measures. The principles of education occupy an important place in the implementation of the process of improving their qualifications. In the theory and practice of institutions of higher education and institutions of the field of civil security, key principles are formulated that determine the prospects for the development of formal and informal education of adults. However, scientists have different approaches to their interpretation, grouping and classification. Scientists have not developed a unified approach to determining the principles of improving the qualifications of certain management personnel and specialists in fire safety and civil protection. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to clarify and classify the principles of the organization of professional development, taking into account modern approaches to the development of the professional competence of specified management personnel and specialists, strategic tasks in the field of fire safety and civil protection. The analysis of current legal acts, educational and methodological and scientific literature allows to identify methodological approaches to the development of professional competence of managers and specialists in fire safety and civil protection: andragogical, acmeological, systemic, personal-activity, contextual, competence and interdisciplinary. Such methodological approaches reflect the principles that reveal the essence of improving the qualifications of management personnel and specialists, take into account strategic tasks in the field of fire safety and civil protection, and effective approaches to adult education. Based on the results of the study, the principles of improving the qualifications of management personnel and specialists in fire safety and civil protection were clarified and characterized, namely: continuity, obligation, variability, balance, innovation, self-actualization, individualization, combination with practical activities, approximation to real conditions professional activity, subsidiarity. It is proposed to classify the specified and characterized principles, which reflect the specified methodological approaches to the development of professional competence of managers and specialists in fire safety and civil protection, into three groups: fundamental, general didactic and specific. The specifics of the implementation of the principles of improving the qualifications of management personnel and specialists in fire safety and civil protection are substantiated, taking into account the researched methodological approaches in institutions of higher education and institutions in the field of civil safety. Based on the analysis of methodological approaches to the development of professional competence of management personnel and specialists in fire safety and civil protection, the relationships with a set of principles for improving their qualifications have been determined.