The professional development of public administration employees is an increasingly important factor in the success of any current nation-state. This statement stems from the increasing effect of the current scientific and technological progress and the breakthrough of globalization, which implicitly requires the establishment and modification of legal regulation of public administration and the permanent improvement of its employees. However, in world practice, there are marked differences in the effectiveness of vocational training, especially in public administration employees of certain countries, which have a decisive influence on the development efficiency of all those countries. Therefore, the subject of this scientific work was chosen to study the success of professional development of employees in public administration of selected European countries and Serbia, whose results seek to advance science in this field and contribute to the development of this practice not only in Serbia but in general. It has produced valuable scientific results that show that the professional development of employees in the public administration of developed countries is, for many reasons, more successful than in Serbia.