According to many research studies, there is a strong demand on the labour market that fresh graduates should, in addition to their professional knowledge, have advanced communication, organization and problem-solving skills, analogical and logical thinking, creativity, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and be assertive and motivated. In the literature these are called key workplace competencies, soft skills, transversal competencies. In vocational teacher training, especially vocational technical instructor training, the role of these competencies is even more important, as educators are also responsible for developing these competencies of vocational education students. In this research, the development of inductive reasoning of the student applying for technical instructor training has been assessed. The inductive reasoning, more specifically abstract thinking of the 60 students participating in the correspondence programme varies widely. We managed to isolate a relatively small group of people who achieved a good result with a small amount of time invested, so their thinking was fast and effective. However, there was a larger group who took advantage of the full time available, but their inductive reasoning was less developed. Both groups deserve special attention from a methodological point of view.