RESEARCH ON COMPETENCES OF STUDENTS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDIES IN THE FIELD OF ROAD CONSTRUCTION

At the Faculty of Civil Engineering Osijek, as in the whole Croatian higher education system, the introduction of learning outcomes and the development of study programmes based on learning outcomes are at the very beginning. Learning outcomes help students, since they clearly describe what is expected from them during the course of their studies. They also help teachers to focus exactly on the desired level of knowledge and skills of students in a particular course. One of the important elements for defining the approach to education based on learning outcomes are data on desirable competences of graduates, which are attained by interviewing employers, graduates, and teachers. The concept of competence includes knowledge, skills and attitude through which an individual is qualified to carry out a particular job. Competence, in that sense, represents a combination of knowledge and its application (skills), attitudes and responsibilities, which reflect the learning outcomes of the educational programme. Replies of interviewed employers should be used for an analysis of the employment process of the Faculty's graduates' and the employers' satisfaction with graduates' acquired knowledge and skills, as well as the possibility to apply them during work. The interview survey should reveal the deficiencies in the educations of students, and which knowledge and skills are missing, according to employers. The employer survey results will be combined with the results of graduate survey. This will serve to improve the organization and content of courses (modules) or the entire programme. In this paper, employers whose activities are primarily in the field of road construction will be interviewed. Also, students of undergraduate and graduate studies will be interviewed in order to determine the perception of the importance of competences, skills and attitudes acquired during the course of their studies.