The research has been investigating social competence of students of a secondary technical and secondary pedagogical school. Social competence is the aptitude and effectiveness of one’s dealing with others in social interaction and has two important aspects: the quality of social relationships and good social skills. The quality of social relationships is dependent on good social skills and good social skills increase the quality of relationships. The both aspects are in mutual dependence, the one influencing the other. Good relationships strengthen good social skills and practising social skills increase the quality of relationships. Social relationships and social skills have the following levels: individual, family, peers, community. To judge the social competence, we have chosen the method of R. Riggio “Social Skills Inventory”. R. Riggio understands the social competence as a multidimensional construct that includes skills of receiving, decoding and understanding of social information together with other social skills as verbal and social expression, regulation of social behaviour and acting social roles (Riggio, 1986). His theory of Social Skills Inventory is based on the idea that social competence is a construct which covers basic communication skills. The method includes 90 self-evaluation items which are judged within six scales and the total forms the overall level of social competence. The research compares the results in particular scales and in the overall score of social competence according to various criteria: the type of school (technical, pedagogical), sex, the type of family (complete, incomplete), age and a number of brothers and sisters. The research data can help the management of faculties and teachers to develop social competence of students. The social competence plays an important role in the interaction of students and public. Students with higher level of social competence better understand the approaches and attitudes of public towards rural areas and community and have skills of competent and efficient presentation of agriculture in the society.

Key words: social competence, social relationships, verbal and emotional expression, regulation of social behaviour, communication skills, interaction between a student and public, presentation of agriculture

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