The Development of Future Competences – A Challenge for the Educational System

At present, the educational systems are faced with a great challenge: how to prepare the people for an unknown future? A few questions arise: what will the labour market look like in the future? What kind of competences will be necessary in the future? The documents of educational policy (UNESCO, 2015; IBE, 2018) underline the idea that education must be rethought from the perspective of the specific competences of the 21st century: design thinking, innovation, self-agency, collaboration in a complex context. Social changes are transforming the nature and the role of competences in people`s everyday lives: the cognitive competences are more complex and involve not only the capacity of problem resolve but also of critical thinking. Cognitive competences in future society mean thinking design, innovation and metacognition. Social competences are redefined according to social trends – a new social ethic, a new culture of human relationships. This article is focus on research in students` perception regarding the future competences and the way which these competences are trained in school. The research was embedded in a constructivist-interpretivist paradigm, which employed both quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection. This study included a number of 209 participants, students from the bachelor and master degree levels from Transilvania University from Brasov. Conclusion: The students as future employees need to develop future competences, but in a practical and real way. They need to see in their teachers the 21st century competences – critical thinking, collaboration, social activism, self-agency, etc.