The task of a modern higher education institution is to form graduates’ competencies that contribute to the construction of a flexible professional path in today’s continuously changing society. Success in solving these problems is provided by the presence of university graduates of the so-called universal competencies (according to FSES 3++), reflected in the ability to think systematically, critically assess the situation and possible resources for solving the problem, the ability to cooperate and self-organize. In foreign educational practice, these competencies are known as “flexible” competencies or “soft” skills. The article aims to disclose the concepts of “soft skills” and “universal competencies” in a meaningful way, to correlate their structures and summarize the experience of soft skills and universal competencies assessment in Russian and foreign practice. Research methods include: theoretical analysis on different approaches to the interpretation of the concepts of “soft skills” and “universal competence”; structural-content and comparative analyses that allow us to identify the common and special in the content and structure of these concepts; summarizing the experience of assessing “soft” skills and universal competencies, which provides an opportunity to identify best practices for diagnosing these skills and competencies. The result of the study is seen in the presentation of tools for assessing the universal competence of university students and the development of recommendations for its application in practice. It is concluded that it is necessary to organize procedures for diagnosing the development of universal competencies of students at different stages of learning in higher education. The scientific novelty of the study is to enrich the ideas of the competence approach with the knowledge of the general and specific in the content and structure of “soft” skills and universal competencies, the peculiarities of their evaluation. Practical significance is seen in the possibility of using the materials of the article for further research; study the dynamics of the development of universal competencies; development of training materials for students of professional development courses.

The article actualizes the necessity of the formation an individual learning style among students of a modern university. The analysis of the main aspects of the synergetic, axiological and acmeological approaches allows the author to conclude that the synthesis of the ideas of the indicated approaches can be seen as a significant potential in determining the set of conditions, mechanisms and methods for the formation of the students individual learning style, as well as the methodological basis of this process.

In a current situation of society development, each person should have life-long learning skills, which allow him to be flexible, autonomous, able to adapt to different scenarios of todays unstable reality. These skills can be referred to the category of soft skills, the development of which give the students the opportunity to organize their learning process effectively, and it will also help in forming students individual learning style. Life-long learning skills formed at the university can also be considered as skills oriented to the prospect of further personal and professional development perspective life-long learning skills. Thus, the purpose of this study is to find mechanisms of the development of students life-long learning skills that also help in forming their individual learning style. Using the methods of theoretical, structural-content and comparative analysis, as well as the synthesis of ideas, it was possible to find out that life-long learning skills belong to the category of soft methodological skills, the development mechanism of which is the strategies of independent learning. Moreover, studying the relationship between such concepts as life-long learning skills, universal competencies, individual learning style showed that the development of soft methodological skills of life-long education is the basis for the formation of students individual learning style. As part of the study, it was developed a methodology for teaching students cognitive and metacognitive strategies for independent learning in a foreign language class while working on listening. As the expected results of the application of this methodology, it is assumed that having mastered the strategies and techniques of independent learning, students will be able to deal with the learning material better, which in turn will help to master the competences more successfully, to increase learning motivation and to form students subjective position. As a prospect for further research, we see the development and testing of technology for teaching students the skills of life-long education, with a detailed description of the stages and guidelines for students and teachers.