In pedagogy, it is often emphasized that we need to go beyond the traditional level of teaching and in addition to professional knowledge to integrate skills that support the acquisition of 21st century skills such as problem-solving, creativity and critical thinking, or social skills and emotional intelligence, which are highlighted in the labor market. These, so-called soft skills, are the hard-to-grasp, non-cognitive skill areas but they are the key to students' later success, the development of which requires the ability to learn competencies and skills and the preparation of future teachers. This study presents a slice of a university example of the integration of student-centered educational practices in the perspective of methods and soft skills in engineering teacher and technical teacher training. As part of a development process, we examined the role of learning-teaching methods in successful learning, in the positive shaping of the teacher's role, and in the acquisition of soft skills. Part of this was the preliminary and subsequent survey connected to the pedagogical subjects, the purpose of which was to map the basic pedagogical/methodological knowledge and the preliminary views of the students. The results of several semesters of development and surveys show that teacher candidates have a positive opinion of competency-based learner-centered approaches, but more pedagogical training and support would be necessary, which has a serious impact on the quality of their own classroom teaching and assessment practices. During the semesters, it also became certain that the necessary skills can be developed and that the students positively evaluate the new approach, learning about student-centered methods. © CELDA 2023.All rights reserved.
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