Secondary mechanical engineering schools. Digital competence. Use of digital competences in teaching and learning. Digital technology equipment.

The study is focused on the analysis of secondary schools of engineering students’ opinions on their equipment with specific tools for digital control of production processes, use of the tools by teachers of vocational subjects, application of students’ already acquired digital competences in learning and their assessment of schools’ contribution of to their further development. The survey took place at the end of 2019 at two secondary schools of engineering with a sample consisting of 316 students. The analysis produced the following outcomes. Only more than one-third of students consider the school facilities as good and very good with as a large share cannot asses them. Most students rate the use of digital technology by vocational subject teachers as sufficient up to maximum. Nearly half of the students considered the possibility of applying their digital skills as sufficient, but nearly a third of the students feel that these options are limited or very limited. Almost 60% of students consider the school’s contribution to the development of their digital competences to be quite significant or very significant, but 40% consider it to be small or very small. Final year students are more critical in their assessments of school facilities, the use of digital technologies by teachers, possibilities to apply their digital competences in learning, and the contribution of schools to the development of their digital competences than lower grade students.