This paper will examine the issues of competence development in the field of mechatronics, which combines different technologies, namely, information and communication technologies, sensors, electrotechnics and electronics, pneumatics, hydraulics, and mechanics. This integration makes the technical field very complex in the areas of practical application: industry, agriculture, and energy sector. The paper will argue the architecture of the competence development system in this field by emphasising different components, which will cover construction and implementation issues in educational settings. As a point of departure in this paper a discussion about a competence phenomenon will argue changing approach to a competence development in a highly complex field since mechatronics is considered as such. This will justify a design of the competence development system constructing the cubist structure: competencies - technologies - application areas. This cubist structure will be discussed in the framework of vocational qualifications. Therefore, a case of this development in the Lithuanian system of vocational and education training will be considered in order to guarantee transparency of vocational qualifications in the aspect of wider international recognition of qualifications in the field under discussion.

This will offer analysis of problems in defining the qualification levels by emphasising e.g.

1. change of the working environment that relates to demands of the knowledge driven companies and economy;
2. interconnection between technologies and the competence level;
3. transfer of competencies into the new working environment.

On the one hand, this will involve some consideration of differences in understanding competencies as well as discussion on contextualization and transformation competencies responding to challenges of the changing technologies. Therefore, professional competence in the field of mechatronics will be argued as a combination of technical, social, and personal competencies, which will reflect the idea of life long learning in order to update, especially, the technical part of the competence in the field under discussion. When it comes to determination in levels of a vocational qualification, the boundaries between the levels become the issue for transparency of qualifications worldwide. On the other hand, implementation of competencies in the field of mechatronics in the educational and training settings will question approaches to the curriculum design e.g.

1. disciplinary;
2. functional;
3. competence-based

The paper will also examine the component of constructing the learning environment in order to acquire the competencies in the field under discussion. Finally, the paper will summarize the theoretical discussion and demonstrate its consequences in different projects, which were initiated in business companies and educational institutions at European and Lithuanian levels in order to test and evaluate the system of competence development in the field of mechatronics.