During the last quarter of the century, the training of scientific personnel at the third educational-scientific level has become widespread in the world. It is believed that PhD candidates, as the most skilled workforce, in addition to making a significant contribution to the economic growth of the country in which they work, through the production of knowledge, still contribute to solving social problems. The result of their researches in various fields is the emergence of innovation, patenting inventions that enhance national competitiveness in the global market. Integration of Ukraine into the European educational, scientific and research space involves a radical reorganization of the training system of scientific personnel. Unfortunately, although the Law "On Higher Education" requires the introduction of a doctoral degree in Ukraine, the specific parameters and mechanisms for the future functioning of this system have not yet been determined. Therefore, in order to develop them, it is necessary to address the experience of foreign countries in which the training of scientific personnel has been carried out under such a system for many years and demonstrate its efficiency and high qualitative and quantitative indicators. In this paper the author identifies peculiarities in the training of PhD in foreign countries, describes the main tendencies in the training of applicants for doctoral degrees abroad, describes the main forms and methods of teaching future philosophy doctors at universities of the world, identifies the steps necessary to develop a national system for training scientific personnel on the level of PhD, which would correspond to modern European principles, taking into account the progressive experience of the developed countries.