Constructing a model of dual professional competences in engineering education

The scientific research aims to describe the content and features of the introduction of dual education in Ukraine, to investigate the prospects and advantages of the formation of practical oriented engineering education, to construct a circular model of dual professional competencies of engineering education and to establish the interconnection of structural and functional subsystems of this model. Using the methods of the systematic approach, comparative analysis, synthesis, and generalization, the authors concentrate on conceptualising and formalising the dual content of engineering education. The authors analysed the curricula of individual engineering majors, identified several discrepancies in the correlation of theoretical and practical courses, proved the need to change the curricula and bring them closer to dual education standards. To develop the dual content of specialists' professional training in the field of engineering, the authors suggest using the distinction the two subsystems – internal and external. The result of interaction between these two subsystems is the parallel acquisition of necessary applied engineering skills while studying at higher educational establishments, practical cooperation between higher educational institutions and leading enterprises of the region, rational alternation of theory and practice in the educational process. Our finding offers a significant contribution to further understanding the methodology involved in implementing the academic standards and highlighting discrepancies between traditional and dual education systems. Prospects for further research in this area may be studies on developing dual education in economic and humanities.