The article analyzes the current problems of the organization of the training engineers in the Urals. The main «root» of the low prestige of the «engineer» in Russia, slip in the preparation of personnel in technical colleges, lies in the devaluation of engineering work, reducing its social and economic attractiveness. The gap between science, education and industry leading to an aging engineering corps personnel in enterprises, to the care of the most talented engineers in other fields of activity. The authors show that the formation of engineering competence as a determinant of professional and personal quality specialist involves updating the motivation of the student, his active, purposeful adaptation to the educational process, increasing its liability for the assimilation of the curriculum. The findings and suggestions of authors based on the results of complex sociological research conducted by them in the years 2012-2013. (Five universities in the Urals) (The cities are Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Nizhnevartovsk) — 2012 and the number of schools in the city of Yekaterinburg — 2013.