Discussion competence in the structure of modern engineer training

Introduction. In the course of the study we have identified a contradiction consisting, on the one hand, in the increased requirements to the level of communicative training of technical specialists in post-industrial society. On the other hand, there is an almost complete lack of research on the problem of forming a discussion competence of future engineers. Based on the abovementioned, the author has formulated the goal of this paper. It consists in defining the place of the discussion competence in the structure of modern engineer training, caused by the networking and socio-technical transformation of technical activity. Theoretical analysis. The generalization of philosophical and pedagogical approaches to the study of engineering activity (EA) allowed us to classify the functions of a modern engineer according to the nature of the tasks to be solved. The classification revealed that under the influence of networking and socio-technical transformation of engineering activity there is a growing demand for engineers who are ready to implement professional tasks based on socio-technical functions. The correlation between the engineers’ mastery of the discussion competence and the effectiveness of their implementation of sociotechnical functions: design, research, organizational and managerial, was revealed. Conclusion. The study made it possible to draw a general conclusion about the need to distinguish the discussion competence as an independent element in the structure of universal competences and to include discussion training in the curriculum of technical universities in two directions: traditional (offline discussions) and network (online discussions).