The article made a deep and detailed analysis of foreign and domestic studies on the digitalization of education, aspects of the emergency introduction of online education in the spring semester of the 2019–2020 school year. The theoretical aspects of industry 4.0, labor market automation, «hard» and «soft» competencies and skills models of the future are considered. A questionnaire has been developed and tested that studies the opinion of students and undergraduates of the Omsk State University of Railways on online training in the spring of 2019–2020, a mixed format of training and competencies of the future.

Keywords: digitalization of higher education, online learning, mixed or hybrid learning, «hard» and «soft» companies, the top 15 skills of the future, «a new model of 21st century skills».