Changing teaching: Competencies versus contents

Due to the changes created by the Bologna Accord, future engineers must learn not only how to model processes, but also how to analyse events and situations using mathematical tools. Even though problem solving is unanimously considered an important part of their education, sometimes students feel that the problems they are requested to solve are not related to those of the real world, making difficult for them to envision how they will apply their mathematical knowledge in their future working life. As part of a European project proposal, and in order to remove that psychological barrier, we have started to implement a new methodology in our Statistics classes, so students can benefit from a learning model better adapted to their professional needs. In this contribution, we describe the initial steps of a project whose goal is to teach the subject of Statistics in a more practice way, using real data to enable our students to achieve the competencies set for this matter in an easier way better adapted to the current times.