This article defines the priority competencies of the future specialists (according to the economic direction of work) of enterprises, based on global trends in the development of the economy in the leading economically developed countries and in Ukraine. It has been established that today the economic unit of work at our enterprises is based on the application of digital technologies for 2/3. These technologies make it possible to increase labor productivity, significantly reduce the time of designing and mastering the production of new products, shorten the technological and financial cycles of production and sale of products, as well as enter global markets. Special attention was paid to the application of digital technologies specifically to small and micro-enterprises, as today they make up 95% of the total number of enterprises in the economy of Ukraine. But in the conditions of the rapid development of IT technologies at enterprises, a significant problem has arisen: the digital competence of personnel lags far behind the modern possibilities of increasing the efficiency of enterprise management based on these latest IT technologies. There are several reasons but the main one is that educational institutions of professional pre-higher education are "lagging behind" in technologies and methods of teaching digital technologies. This lag is typical not only for the disciplines of professional and practical training that are taught, but also for the forms and methods of education that are used. The cognitive skills and competencies of future economists are the key to the economic and scientific and technical development of each enterprise and the whole country. The authors creatively interpreted the results of their own and international research on the evolution of skills and competencies of economists at enterprises in Ukraine and other economically developed countries. Dominant competencies for specialists of enterprises that are typical for Industry 3.0; 4.0; 5.0 are established. The improvement directions of modern competence training of specialists in the economics of enterprises in educational institutions are indicated. It is noted that "digital" competence in highly developed countries is already perceived as a necessary basic level of education for a young specialist, as well as evidence of employers' trust in the level of "digital" training in educational institutions. Currently, relevant forms and methods of teaching students to instill in them a creative approach to solving specific production problems have been determined. Examples of the application of various economic programs in the educational process, which lead to the effective assimilation of educational disciplines and the development of cognitive abilities of future specialists, are given.