Digital technologies in additional professional education curricula as a mean for developing professional competencies in polytechnic university students

Digitalization of education plays an important role in the implementation of programs to train highly qualified personnel for the digital economy. The project “Digital departments”, implemented since 2022 at the intersection of additional education and information technologies within the framework of the national program “Digital economy of the Russian Federation”, creates a unique educational format, not only changing the organizational forms of training but also allowing the use of digital technologies as means of developing the vocational competencies of students. The article presents data on the first implementation results of the additional professional education program “Information technologies in design” at the “digital department” of Perm National Research Polytechnic University and aimed at training specialists in the field of industrial design. The digital technologies considered in the article act not only as tools in the operational activity of an industrial designer but also as means for the vocational development of special design thinking skills. The author’s teaching methods are of practical value for achieving the effect of “creativization” of design solutions developed by the program participants. It is proved that in such context, digital technologies contribute to the formation of students’ skills of creative actions carrying artistic, aesthetic, and economic value. The presented results may be of practical interest to heads of university design education, to teachers — researchers of the problems of digital transformation of engineering and graphic education, as well as methodologists and teachers­practitioners who provide training in the programs of higher and additional vocational education in the IT sphere.