Las competencias profesionales de la carrera de Turismo de la Universidad Técnica del Norte, en el nuevo contexto de desarrollo de la Zona I del Ecuador

n this article the new transversal and specific competences to be developed by tourism professionals from the Technical University of the North are presented, to show consistency and relevance in the new developmental context of the Region One in Ecuador; responding to the demands of the current higher education system and contributing to the transformation of the production model in the area. This work has been carried out because, although the quality of education has improved the last eight years, there are still some weaknesses in the system, such as over-supply of institutions and degrees, poor legal regulations, weak management of university quality, curriculums inspired in marketing and not on the actual needs of the society and developmental tendencies. Nowadays, the challenge for higher education institutions led by the ESC and SENESCYT CEAACES is to implement and develop a learning process per competences based on problems of regional context; bringing theory to practice, these results will be evaluated at the end of the major and during the professional practice by CEAACES; these are actions that determine the path for Ecuador craving a better living. The scientific framework was carried out in order to get the definition of competences and it has been supported by several inherent documents held by legal regulations, trends in higher education, indexed publications, national, regional and institutional planning; as well as reports and studies of actors immersed into the academic work, business, speeches given by experts in tourism, environment and culture; allowing the establishment of graduation competences, the ones that will ensure the relevance and permanence of the major in the region one of Ecuador. The proposal consists in a typology of competences according to the environmental needs, characterized by its global and future vision; in this document transversal competences are displayed such as: metacognitive, methodological, technological, linguistic and individual; also inter-and intrapersonal kinds such as: social, bio - psychological, ethical and ecological valuation; in addition to the systematic kinds as: entrepreneurship, organization and evaluation. The specific competences have been determined and based on the administrative, socio- cultural, socio- environmental, prospective, tour operation, applied technologies, foreign languages and legal fields’ management. These results have led to the major curricular redesign and it will b