The dynamic development of technologies and requirements of industry production are placing increasing demands on the flexibility and practical readiness of future industrial engineers. Traditional educational methods, mainly theory-oriented, can no longer fully cover the needs of modern industry, which expects graduates to be able to quickly apply the acquired knowledge in the improvement of specific processes in the context of industrial production. Therefore, the need for practical learning that simulates real production environments and allows students to test and optimize technological and organizational solutions in safe conditions is coming to the fore. The starting point of the presented study was the requirements for the education of industrial engineers, which requires an interdisciplinary approach. Therefore, in the paper, the authors focused on several forms of industrial engineer education and the assessment of the need for complex preparation of industrial engineers and managers for industrial production. The paper presents a comparison of results and experience from theoretical classes, laboratory exercises at the university level and practical training directly in the conditions of industrial enterprises. Based on expert assessment, a hierarchical structure of the research problem was developed and the importance of different forms of education was assessed by means of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The conclusion of the paper formulates recommendations for university education of future engineers and suggests further directions for the development of practical exercises.

Keywords: Analytic hierarchy process, education, experimental learning, industrial engineering, practical training.