Essence and Characteristics of Competences in the Assessments of Key Participants of the Educational Process

The interpretation of competences by teaching staff, university students and employers is of particular interest, given the importance of this concept in the organisation of the educational process. The aim of the study is to establish the proximity of the key participants of the educational process in higher education regarding the essence and content of competences: professional and supraprofessional. Data collection was carried out by means of questionnaire survey and expert interview; theoretical developments of behavioural and functional methodological approaches to studying competences were used in operationalising the concepts. The Cramer’s coefficient (V) and Pearson’s correlation analysis were used to compare the assessments. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted in 2024 in Omsk. Interviewed: (n1) 44 representatives of university teaching staff; (n2) 215 students; (n3) 41 employers. Of the questioned respondents 19 employers and 23 teachers were interviewed. The results showed that teachers’ answers more than other participants of the educational process demonstrate a functional approach in interpreting competences, including professional and supra-professional ones. Employers to a greater extent demonstrate an integral approach to competences, combining functional and behavioural characteristics. The questionnaire survey has shown that among teachers the share of respondents who interpret professional competences not only in such characteristics as: knowledge, skills and abilities, but also through the behavioural models derived from them is much lower than among employers and students. Within the framework of the presented work, the identification of differences in assessments was carried out on the basis of comparing the opinions of three key participants of the educational process with regard to both professional and supraprofessional competences. This allowed us to conduct a multi-subject analysis of the understanding of such an important component of the educational process as competences on the part of the teaching staff, students and employers. The peculiarity of the conducted multi-subject analysis is the experience of interaction in the implementation of educational programmes and employment between the surveyed and interviewed employers, teachers and students. The study contributes to the development of competency-based approach in designing educational programmes. The results obtained can be used in the design of educational programmes and professional standards on the basis of coordination and consideration of the understanding of competences by different participants of the educational process.