Keyword: «bachelors in the field of environmental protection; professional competences; information and communication technologies; assessment of the formation of professional competences; network educational environmental projects»

In modern conditions, in the period of new challenges, the quality of professional education of future bachelors in the field of environmental protection is the key to the sustainable development of the country. In this regard, one of the priorities of higher education institutions is the training of highly qualified specialists in the field of environmental safety, whose level of professional competence will determine the effectiveness of solving environmental problems at the federal, regional and local levels. The relevance of the research is due to the need for scientific substantiation of the potential of network educational environmental projects to ensure the effectiveness of the process of professional competences formation for bachelors in the field of nature protection. The purpose of the article is to determine the level of bachelors’ professional competences formation in the field of environmental protection. The tenets of the activity- and competence-based approaches, which determine choosing the means, forms and methods of solving research problems, served as the methodological basis of the research. The leading methods of studying the problem were: pedagogical design; theoretical analysis and evocative generalization of pedagogical experience in conducting network educational projects; experiment and methods of statistical processing of the data obtained. 17 institutions of higher education located in 6 federal districts of the Russian Federation (Central, Northwestern, North Caucasian, Volga, Ural, Siberian) were the empirical basis of the research. 155 students whose area of training is “Ecology and Environmental Management” (bachelor's degree level) 05.03.06 took part in the experiment. The article presents the results of the formative stage of the experiment, which indicate an increase in the level of professional competences formation among bachelors in the field of nature protection in the process of implementing the network educational environmental project "Environmental protection in the regions". The theoretical significance of the research lies in expanding the understanding of the prospects of using network educational environmental projects in the professional training of bachelors in the field of nature protection. The results of the study can be useful for educational organizations in assessing the quality of educational activities and training of students, in designing the content elements of disciplines (modules), practices; for teachers to provide methodological support for the organization and conduct of all-Russian and international network educational projects of various directions; in preparing educational materials for use in the professional development system for specialists in the field of environmental safety and environmental management.