Information Technologies for Designing Professional Educational Programs of Engineering Training for Industry 4.0

In this article the authors consider the problem of training qualified specialists to work in the digital economy at the current level of higher education development. The authors study the very concept of “competencies” and discuss the difficulties associated with the introduction of competency-based approach in the system of higher professional education. The article presents the main principles and definitions of the competency-based approach for the formation of educational outcomes within higher education. It is argued that an important aspect in the creation of educational programs is their orientation to the needs of production with regard to young specialists with certain competencies, but currently many programs of higher and secondary vocational education do not have time to adapt to the latest achievements in technological and production spheres. The article states that the development of students’ competencies is a key goal of educational programs and that they should be organized in such a way as to ensure consistent and systematic mastering of the necessary skills and knowledge. Competency-based approach in the sphere of higher professional education is realized through the development of exemplary basic educational programs that form a model of training. The article analyzes published studies and presented software products devoted to curriculum design. The article sets the task to form a set of disciplines, optimal in terms of labor intensity and levels of competence formation, which allows the most effective realization of the competences of the learner in the direction of bachelor’s degree, taking into account the level of formation set by the employer and the limitations of the curriculum. The mathematical model for solving the problem and the technology of designing the optimal competence model of a graduate taking into account the employer’s requirements are presented.