English for Specific Purposes in Development of Professional Qualification of Engineering Graduate Students

The labour market demands in the present situation in the industry and economics of Latvia are continuously changing requiring that the young specialists need to have new competences and skills to be able to find a job, be competitive and make a career in their professional work. Due to this reason a task is set for higher educational establishments to revise the study programs and courses with the aim to improve and update them in compliance with these requirements. The present article deals with issues related to engineering graduate student education, particularly teaching/learning English for Specific Purposes. The author of the article has elaborated a conception of teaching/learning English for Specific Purposes at the Latvia University of Agriculture, Faculty of Engineering, which is presented in the Results and discussion section of the article. Application of Content and Language Learning as one of the most efficient approaches is dwelled on and involvement of graduate students in extra-curricular activities is suggested as a way for the improvement of their foreign language and cross-cultural communication skills and competences.