The work provides theoretical justification, develops and experimentally tests a methodology for the formation of professional competence of students on the basis of integration of educational and production components of training. The relevance of the research is due to global socio-economic transformations, intensive technological development, modernization of the vocational education system of the PRC and the growing need for competitive specialists capable of operating effectively in an innovative economy. The identified contradictions between the state strategy of competency modernization of vocational education, the demands of the high-tech labor market and the real level of integration of educational and production components actualize the need for scientific substantiation of a holistic methodology for the formation of students' professional competence by means of dual education.
The study contains a comprehensive analysis of the current state of development of the problem in the Chinese and international scientific discourse, and identifies the leading trends in the development of higher vocational education in the PRC, namely: strengthening the competency paradigm; institutionalization of the «college-enterprise» partnership; state standardization of learning outcomes; emphasis on psychological and pedagogical support for dual training; digitalization of educational and production interaction; integration of qualification and personal and value components of students' professional development.
The content of the key concepts of the study is specified. In particular, it is formulated that the professional competence of students of higher vocational colleges of the People's Republic of China is an integrated personal and professional quality that combines professional knowledge, practical skills, value orientations and the ability to self-development, ensuring the readiness and ability to effectively carry out professional activities in the modern socio-economic environment.
It is substantiated that the means of dual education are a set of pedagogical, organizational and production-practical tools, forms and mechanisms of interaction between an educational institution and an enterprise, which ensure the integration of theoretical training with professional activities in a real production environment and are aimed at the purposeful formation of students' professional competence.
At the same time, it was determined that the formation of professional competence of students of higher professional colleges by means of dual education is a purposeful and managed process of integrating theoretical training and professional practice in the partnership between an educational institution and an enterprise, aimed at the development of professional knowledge, practical skills, value orientations and the ability to self-development, which ensure the readiness of students for effective professional activity in the modern socio-economic environment.
A structural model of professional competence has been developed, covering intellectual-knowledge, value-orientation, creative-innovative and dialogical-communicative components. Criteria (cognitive-analytical, motivational-value, constructive-innovative, social-communicative), corresponding indicators and four levels of formation (high, sufficient, medium, low) have been determined, which provided the possibility of qualitative and quantitative diagnostics of the results of the experiment.
The psychological and pedagogical conditions for the formation of students' professional competence by means of dual education are substantiated: designing an educational and production environment that combines theoretical training with practical tasks of real production and promotes the development of skills to operate with special knowledge in the process of solving professionally significant situations; integrating the axiological content of training with real production practices by ensuring students' awareness of the significance of the chosen activity, adopting the norms of professional culture and forming a sustainable focus on self-development and career growth; organizing a problem-based and project-based educational space that involves students in the implementation of variable production tasks, interdisciplinary projects and research initiatives in cooperation with enterprises; establishing systematic educational and production interaction of students with teachers and representatives of enterprises, which involves their inclusion in joint activities, mentoring practices and collective performance of tasks; ensuring an integrated educational and production environment, which involves coordinated interaction between the college and the enterprise and promotes the simultaneous synchronous formation of all components professional competence of students.
