Old new trend in determination of engineer's competences

The article provides a brief overview of definitions of modern specialist competencies, in particular, a comprehension of the essence of engineering competencies. The authors take the view in which competence in general sense is understood as a triad: knowledge, skills, and the ability to effectively carry out professional activities at a high level. Experience shows that the newly minted engineers are not trained to work in a team and do not know how to build professional relationships and communication in a team. Graduates of engineering schools often fail to realise their professional knowledge because they do not have the problem-solving and skills-oriented tasks due to the lack of critical thinking. Since the quality of engineering education in technical institutions clearly does not meet modern requirements, the current task is the formation of future engineers' core competencies, which are focused on their successful professional realization. In the broad sense of the word, education is an investment in the future. Therefore, the emphasis in the educational reform should be focused on the competence-based approach, which will increase the possibility of creating competitiveness and cost efficiency invested in education. In the opinion of the majority of both Russian and foreign researchers the wide range competence includes both the key and professional competence. This article draws attention to the core competencies, which include social, interpersonal, and personal ones. Despite a large number of studies conducted in different countries to study the competence of engineers, most of them have one common gap, which is related to the fact that respondents generally favour students and university graduates, while a deeper understanding of the quality and the ability to apply these competencies can be detected only through the interview of the professionals who already have experience in their professional field. In this context the article provides an overview of the materials of a sociological research conducted in 2009 at the University of Western Australia and focused on the study of the general competencies, which are required for the successful engineers. A distinctive feature of the study is that the respondents are the "grown-up engineers" with work experience of 5 to 20 years after graduation. The article reveals the most important components of core competencies. The results of the survey are described and prospects for further study of the problem in relation to the Russian system of engineering education are given. According to the authors the full and objective picture of the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for an engineer today is one of the keys to overcome the crisis that exists in engineering education and the general state of engineering in Russia. In order to understand how to fix the situation it is necessary to systematically investigate the composition of demands and future competencies, to improve the mechanisms for their evaluation and assessment. Taking into account these competencies and, from personal experience, the authors offer a number of solutions that are appropriate for the training of successful engineers.

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