Universal competencies focusing on the future profession: experience in developing the course “Basics of Professional Communication” for students of translation education programs
- DOI
- 10.5922/vestnikpsy-2025-4-10
- Pages
- 101-112
Abstract
Universal competencies are essential for the successful employment of graduates from all educational programs. Employers note their importance for launching a successful career while simultaneously emphasizing the low level of development of universal competencies among university graduates. Although universal competencies, according to current Federal State Educational Standards (FSES), are included in the structure of all educational programs, in practice their development remains in the shadow segment of the educational process. Most often, educational program developers choose to form universal competencies during the first years of study within “universal” courses, which are taught by “universal” instructors to students from different specialties. With this approach, the connection between the courses, and consequently the universal competencies, and future professional activities remains implicit and blurred for students, which, in turn, reduces their motivation and interest in learning. The experience of developing and implementing a professionally oriented course, “Basics of Professional Communication,” for students of translation programs is presented. Within the course, the universal competencies fixed in the FSES are purposefully formed, but with an emphasis on the students’ future professional activities. The course was developed by the working group “University-Industry Interaction” of the Association of Translation Teachers and implemented as part of the eponymous discipline at Herzen State Pedagogical University in the 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25 academic years.