Project-Based Learning in the Aspect of Forming the Professional Identity of Engineering Major Students

Within the post-industrial society, Russian engineering training faces a topical pedagogical issue of forming professional identity by students as the main element of professional responsibility of engineering professionals. The purpose of this article is bringing the specifics of forming professional identity by students to the current discourse of researchers of the issues of engineering training. We have researched the level of topic relevance of the engineering graduate competences declared to be mastered at Turgenev Orel State University. 69 managers and experts of 12 most competitive motor vehicle service enterprises of the Orel region (Russia) were the experimental respondents. The results revealed that the key stakeholders mainly acknowledge the topical relevance of university graduate competencies, which forms a basis of their professional identity connected to their major. The article offers a set of scientific and pedagogical provisions encouraging the college training process to focus on forming the professional identity of their students. The authors have proven the reasonability of using the project-based learning model to form a professional identity. They have also developed the layout of the training models set to form a didactic core of project-based classes focused on forming a professional identity of students. The approach developed by the authors can be applied to the training process of both engineering and other majors.