In recent years, in Bulgaria, at the level of state educational policy, a definition of core competencies that teachers are expected to possess in their professional-pedagogical activity has been carried out: Teaching, Relationships with students, Leadership, Work with parents and the family community, Educational work, Work in a multicultural and inclusive environment, etc. Such competencies were developed for each of the four groups of teachers in Bulgaria - kindergarten teacher, primary teacher, subject teacher and resource teacher. Complexes of competencies were structured and comprehensively described in two regulations of the Ministry of Education and Science - the Regulation on the State Requirements for Acquiring the Qualification "Teacher" and the Regulation on the Status and Professional Development of Teachers.

In addition, to the competencies being developed in detail at the level of knowledge, skills and attitudes (within a number of pages for each of them), a set of academic subjects was proposed for their development in the pre-service teacher training, for example: Interaction with the family, Pedagogical interaction in a multicultural environment, Civic education, Digital competence and digital creativity, Development of lessons for learning in an electronic environment, Inclusive education for children and students with special educational needs, Communication skills in an educational environment, Relationship management in an educational environment, Leadership in education, Management of educational institutions, Health and ecological education, etc.

The great challenge after defining of these core competencies was their integration into the framework of university pre-service teacher training - at the level of bachelor's and master's degree programs. Universities had to update their curricula to comply with the requirements of the regulatory document. Here a main challenge emerged - how to carry out these university reforms so as not only to make structural changes by introducing new academic subjects, but also to prepare lecturers to actually introduce the competency-based approach in pre-service teacher training.

In response to this challenge, the Ministry of Education and Science implemented a National Program for Improving the Competencies of Teachers from State Higher Education Institutions Preparing Future Teachers, within the framework of which a number of trainings for lecturers of future teachers in the pre-service teacher training were conducted to integrate the competency-based approach in teacher training. The implementation of the program ended in 2024 and the results have yet to be seen.

In summary, it can be said that teacher training in Bulgarian universities is gradually transforming in the context of the defined core teacher competencies, as a result of regulatory documents, updating curricula and training of lecturers. The experience gained in the last few years in this direction has shown that a real reform in the pre-service teacher training towards the implementation of the competency-based approach requires very good coordination and cooperation between the Ministry of Education and Science and academic institutions to raise awareness of the need for ongoing reforms in the preparation of future teachers

Keywords: Competency-based approach, pre-service teacher training.