The work is devoted to the analysis of one of the possible ways for industrial enterprises to get out of the personnel shortage, based on the transformation of higher education in the competence-oriented structure of building higher education programs. In particular, on the basis of questionnaires of employees of industrial enterprises and in-depth interviews with experts of subject areas, a list of highly demanded competencies of engineering specialties for the Ural Federal District was compiled and correlated with the skills and abilities formed during the development of basic and special technical disciplines at the university. Three groups of competencies are identified: mathematical-economic, engineering and a group of advanced education - digital competencies, which include not only the competencies of working in a digital environment, but also their derivatives in applications to process modeling, the use of neural networks in working with big data, as well as programming for specific tasks of creating import replacement software for domestic equipment. The interrelation of three groups of competencies and the need for personnel of the engineering vacancies market in the dynamics from 1 to 5 years is shown, and a strategy for changes in the design of bachelor’s and master’s degree programs of higher professional education in technical specialties is proposed, the purpose of which is to get out of the personnel shortage in the perspective of 3 years.