Педагогические науки/ 4.Стратегические направления реформирования системы образования.

Anoshkova T. A.

National Technical University of Ukraine “Kiev Polytechnic Institute”, Ukraine

Development of Key Competencies in Ukrainian Higher Education

Modern Ukrainian society can be characterized by the sharp changes in all spheres of our life. The development of intercultural connections, constant improvements in informational technologies, economic and political changes influence Ukrainian nation as a part of world civilization. All these processes affected modern higher education as well.

During the last decade world society has changed from industrial to informational. Large migration processes, border expansion, a world-wide popularity of the Internet led to globalization and appearance of the unified information space. These changes were so rapid that they caused the immediate necessity to reform our education system in order to make it meet the modern world requirements.

Education institutions play a great part in preparing our youth for future life and successful career, and educate them to become independent individuals valuable for society. And that only become possible due to implementation of global competencies in higher education.

Such processes in European education as a whole and Ukrainian higher education, in particular, have been systematically studied by numerouus Ukrainian scientists, such as G. Nesen, O. Ovcharuk, G. Popova, V. Yahupov, V. Svystun, N. Avshenuk and others. However, it is desirable to systematize and analyze all the existing information.

Knowledge and skills gained by a person while studying at the university are certainly important. But today our education programs also include the concept of student’s competencies. According to various international experts, such competencies make it possible to determine the readiness of a graduator for further life, personal development and active participation in the society changes.

The main goal of these competencies is to meet the requirements of the labor market, to make young specialists competitive in the modern information society.

Taking into consideration everything defined above, the purpose of the current article is to understand the term competency itself and which global competencies it is essential to develop during the educational process.

An international European board of education considers competency as some general or key skills, fundamental ways of studying, key qualifications, understanding of interrelated subjects and basic knowledge [2, p. 7]. These competencies provide:

· An ability of individual to understand and satisfy personal and social demands.

· A system of attitudes, values, knowledge and skills.

European experts define competency as an ability to use the obtained knowledge and skills.

European scholars distinguish such global competencies as the ability of self-learning, critical thinking, readiness to solve complex problems, ability to use innovations for reaching a goal, personal responsibility, ability to listen to others and to take into consideration the received information etc. [1, p. 6].

Ukrainian educationalists, in their turn, determined key competencies which are necessary for Ukrainian graduates and meet the demands of Ukrainian society. Within the “Educational policy” program organized by the UNO in 2004 [2, p. 85], four key competencies were distinguished, these are:

· Ability to study;

· Social competency;

· Intercultural competency;

· Health-saving competency.

Studying is an integral and multifunctional process which include student’s attitude towards the educational process, background and newly received knowledge, skills, and the ways of performing the tasks at different complexity levels. The ability to study involves the following components:

· Student defines the goal of his education activity;

· He works to reach his goal;

· He acknowledges his work and strives to improve it;

· Student has knowledge and skills for self-control and self-evaluation.

Social competency provides the following abilities:

· To determine your own place in the society, to develop the strategies of your further life, in accordance with the interests of different social groups, social norms and rights of Ukrainian society.

· To cooperate in a group or team, to communicate with co-workers taking an active part in different work activities;

· To use modern technologies in order to find a solution to the problem, to perform a task or contact with other person;

· To determine the communication goal, to find the most effective communication strategies and approaches in order to reach it.

Intercultural competency deals with all the spheres of cultural development of individual and society, which provides creating of interpersonal relations culture, tolerance principles and makes it possible for person:

· To analyze and evaluate the most outstanding achievements of national, European and world science and culture, to familiarize himself with cultural and moral value of modern European society;

· To use means and technologies of intercultural communication;

· To speak fluently more than one language and to use it in the process of communication;

· To take into account cultural, language and religious distinctions of different civilization during the communication.

Finally, health-saving competency is focused on saving of physical, social, psychological and mental health of a student and his surroundings.

In conclusion we can say that Ukrainian higher education is subjected to the European and global society changes. Implementation of key competencies in the modern higher education is one of the basic improvements. However, our society is constantly changing with the varying of demands, and our scholars have to conduct more thorough studies, analyzing the basic competencies necessary for modern graduators.

References :

1. Anoshkova, T. (2015). Implementation of global competency in higher education. Advanced Education, 3, p. 4-8.

2. Компетентнісний підхід у сучасній освіті: світовий досвід та українські перспективи: Бібліотека з освітньої політики / Під заг. ред. О.В.Овчарук. – К.: “К.І.С.”, 2004. –112 с.