Since the implementation of the Bologna process, the quality of engineering study courses should be measured according to what extent academic courses of education facilitate and support the acquisition of engineering competences. So far it is not possible to assess this in a reliable and valid way. The foundation of all competence diagnostics is a model of the competences to be developed as well as the subsequent development and application of test instruments. This article theoretically derives a competence model as the basis for an assessment of learning results in engineering mechanics and places it within the current state of research of empirical educational research. Hypotheses on the competence structure will be derived and, for part of the model, statics, tested on the basis of data from a pilot study.