The relevance of the study is determined by the continuous development of the global and domestic economy, which is undergoing a transformation of the methods, forms, and means of organizing business processes. The implementation of innovative development strategies for enterprises and organizations under the updated conditions of socio-economic progress affects the functional roles of economics specialists. However, graduates of institutions of professional pre-higher education are often not prepared to perform professional functions under conditions of rapidly changing factors that influence the economic indicators of enterprises, organizations, or clusters. Consequently, competition among economists in the labor market is actively increasing. Today, there is an integration of global economic systems, a growth in the import of professional services, and increased professional mobility of the population. In this new reality, the established professional competence of economists becomes the key indicator of their competitiveness. The main prospects for forming a new generation of future economists lie in improving the educational environment of professional economic colleges, based on the requirements of socio-economic reality. In this context, it is particularly important to utilize the potential of professional economic colleges to develop the professional competence of future economists.
The scientific novelty and theoretical significance of the study is that for the first time:
– for the first time, pedagogical conditions for the formation of professional competence of future economists in professional economic colleges have been identified and theoretically substantiated (the use of problem-based and interactive teaching methods to create an emotionally rich atmosphere in the educational environment of professional economic colleges in order to enhance students’ professional motivation; expansion of the content of professional training of future economists through situational interdisciplinary tasks to ensure the applied orientation of students’ professional knowledge; provision of practice-oriented training of future economists during classroom and industrial training; organization of students’ self-directed project-based learning), and a structural-functional model has been developed. The model encompasses five interconnected blocks (target, theoretical-methodological, content-technological, analytical-generalizing, and resultative) and initiates the creation of an innovative educational environment for the functioning of the studied process within the capacities of professional economic colleges and stakeholders. The designed blocks of the model perform specific functions aimed at achieving the general objective of the research;
– the components (motivational-value, informational-cognitive, activity-operational, reflective-personal), criteria (motivational — students’ conscious attitude toward acquiring the profession and developed professional motivation; cognitive — systematicity, integrity, and structured professional knowledge of future economists necessary for solving various financial and economic tasks; activity-based — students’ ability to find optimal solutions to complex professional situations based on developed professional skills and abilities; reflective — orientation toward professional development as an economics specialist), indicators (students’ awareness of the values of their future profession, устойчивa motivation to achieve professional success, interest in continuous professional development; interdisciplinary professional knowledge, developed information literacy, formed critical thinking; economic and mathematical literacy, developed soft skills, algorithmized specialized practical professional skills; emotional intelligence; ability for self-analysis and self-assessment; client orientation), and levels (high, sufficient, satisfactory, low) of formation of professional competence of future economists have been specified;
– the essential content of the categories “professional competence of future economists,” “pedagogical conditions for the formation of professional competence of future economists,” and “pedagogical opportunities of professional economic colleges in forming the professional competence of future economists,” among others, has been clarified.
Further development has been given to the ideas of practice-oriented training of future economists in professional economic colleges, the fundamentalization of professional pre-higher economic education, and the intensification of mathematical training of future economists in professional economic colleges; as well as to the principles of systemic, activity-based, competence-based, environmental, contextual, and personality-oriented approaches to organizing the theoretical and practical components of training future economists in professional economic colleges.
