Influenced by the theories of public management and state administration as public services, the criteria for the efficiency of state administrations are changing, as well as the necessary resources to achieve it and the methods by which their aims are accomplished in terms of public interest. In this sense, the role of organizational structure is of great importance. This entails the demand on required numbers of organizational units as it does on numbers of qualified employees. Employees can cope with constant novelties and challenges only if they continuously invest in their knowledge, that is improve their qualifications. With the change of the work force structure, progress of administration, theory and management styles, and continuous enhancement of technology complexity, the need for a good training system within the organization is stimulated. Examples of European Union states demonstrate how state administration training systems have been established during the past decades. These systems differ depending on various factors, but their common goal is the training and modernization of the public administration through the implementation of reforms. Likewise it is interesting how through legislative frameworks the obligation/right of the employees to attend educations and in-service trainings in public administration organizations is defined. The training can be funded in numerous ways, centralized, decentralized or combined manner. Many countries utilize a combined funding system for employee training which will be presented in this thesis through a review of some previous research conducted on career development of civil servants in EU states. For the training of civil servants, state administrations have set up structures and procedures for employee need assessments. The need assessment is the responsibility of each ministry or agency and the procedure is often based on information from management representatives and training beneficiaries. In order for the training process to be effective, it needs to be continuous, and an important role in recognizing these needs also have the heads of respective organizational units. Through a research survey, this thesis will examine the needs of employees for further training, to what degree this is currently being achieved and which professional competencies are still needed.