The nature of innovation and entrepreneurial competency formation among future engineers during their university education

The change in Russia's socio-economic priorities is orienting technical universities to train graduates of a new type - engineers and entrepreneurs. The purpose of the article is to reveal the specifics of the process of forming the competence of future engineers related to technological entrepreneurship. The semantic analysis of the definitions presented in the scientific literature devoted to this problem has allowed us to identify several groups of descriptors reflecting the essential characteristics of the studied pedagogical phenomenon. The most significant are the industry orientation and the innovative orientation of the professional and personal quality being formed. The tendency to start independent professional activity before completing university training allows us to consider the formation of innovative and entrepreneurial competence of a future engineer in the categories of "potential - relevant", "possible - feasible". The entrepreneurial potential of an individual accumulates in the joint intellectual and emotional activities of participants in the educational process and is realized with the participation of the employer. In this understanding, the process of forming an innovative and entrepreneurial competence of a student, being quite independent, is inseparable from the process of its development.