We introduce an agent-based model for the spreading of technological developments in socio-economic systems where the technology is mainly used for the collaboration/interaction of agents. Agents use products of different technologies to collaborate with each other which induce costs proportional to the difference of technological levels. Additional costs arise when technologies of different providers are used. Agents can adopt technologies and providers of their interacting partners in order to reduce their costs leading to microscopic rearrangements of the system. Analytical calculations and computer simulations revealed that starting from a random configuration of different technological levels a complex time evolution emerges where the spreading of advanced technologies and the overall technological progress of the system are determined by the amount of advantages more advanced technologies provide, and by the structure of the social environment of agents. We show that agents tend to form clusters of identical technological level with a power law size distribution. When technological progress arises, the spreading of technologies in the system can be described by extreme order statistics.

An increasingly important expectation of today’s labour market is the group of employability skills. That is the reason why the Institute of Business Communication and Professional Language Studies at Debrecen University found it essential to introduce the development of these highly demanded competences in the curriculum of the technical language courses. The paper describes how workplace skills and foreign language competencies can be compiled in one curriculum with particular emphasis on the application of IT skills in foreign language courses. Since a major task of universities is to prepare students for the tasks of assessment centres and other stages of the selection process, the testing of non-cognitive skills should also be integrated into the teaching material. The expected results of the program include: achieving a higher level of professional language and soft skills, increased student confidence in workplace situations and improved general communication skills.