Competence-based engineering studies

Abstract

Competence-based studies as one of the topicalities of nowadays higher education are oriented towards labour market demands and flexible adaptation of young specialists to the modern area of professional field and society for sustainable development. The aim of the study was to outline the components of competence-based studies and to analyse engineering students' self-assessment of generic competences at the Latvia University of Agriculture (LLU). As a result of the theoretical study it was possible to determine the following components of competence based studies: development of field-related (professional) competences; development of generic competences consisting of instrumental, systemic, interpersonal and meta competences; link of academic and industry goals in the development of competences; considering of students' needs, particularly cognitive ones; promoting of self-directed studies by implementing transformative learning; usage of modern and updated learning resources. The method of questionnaire was used to investigate the students' self-assessment of their generic competences and preferable teaching methods. The results of the study were obtained from 213 first year and 109 third year LLU engineering students from 2015 to 2017.