Traditionally, engineering training in Russia has been of high quality but, lately, due to a number of socio-economic and demographic reasons the level of engineering education has decreased. To improve it certain measures should be taken. This article investigated the reasons for decrease in the achievement level of technical specialties' students. The causes of socio-economic, psychological, and pedagogical character were revealed, with insufficient additional training of the instructors of technical disciplines being among them. A theoretical and experimental study of competencies of the instructors of technical disciplines was conducted. As a result, a model of the competencies of the instructors of technical disciplines was developed. We studied the competence of the academic staff of the South Ural State University (National Research University) (SUSU (NRU)) (Russia) that teaches students in 70 technical subjects. The academic staff encounters 1,000 instructors and professors that train 15,000 students. The results of the research show the low level of competencies in fulfilling some practical engineering tasks among the academic staff, graduate students, engineers and technicians, as well as a limited ability to imagine the whole process of creating a technical object. The results of the pilot study are presented in the form of a systematic random variable, quantitatively characterizing the level of professional competencies development for the professors of technical disciplines. To ensure the feasibility of the competence development we created a set of additional education programs for the teaching staff of technical subjects at the Institute of Additional Education of SUSU (NRU). It allows realizing the continuous development of the teaching staff competence as a part of the elite training of engineering personnel. A modular program of additional professional retraining "Creating a high-tech production of new technical objects" was created by the state order. The most important result of this program was the creation of high-tech plants, which are of strategic importance for the development of industry. The program modules are dynamic, flexible, tailored in accordance with the latest achievements in science and technology.
