Diagnostics of the Formed Professional Competence of Future Energy Engineers

Reaching decisions on climate change, energy and resources is tied to expectations for adequate training of energy professionals. The article presents the results of a study of the formed professional competence of graduates from the „Heat Engineering“ bachelor‘s program of TU – Sofia. For this purpose, a toolkit was prepared for diagnosing the level of competence in the engineering ecology course, including four criterion tests for measuring achievements. The levels of formed competence are defined: nominal, functional, procedural and comprehensive competence. A novelty is the inclusion of authentic tasks from the exam for the qualification of the workers of the desulphurization installations in TPP “Maritsa Iztok 2” and “Toplofikatsia – Sliven Eng. Angel Angelov” in the test tasks of the students. The analysis of the results shows that in 28% of the students the professional competence is fully formed, and they are able to solve completely complex professional tasks. Basic technical knowledge and constructive engineering skills are possessed by 30% of students. In 37% of the graduates have developed procedural competence, and 5% of students have superficial factual knowledge that does not successfully manage professional.