This paper examines the issues of transferable competences and their development in the programs of higher education. As a point of departure in this paper a discussion about a competence phenomenon points out the changing approach to competence development. This will justify the design of the competence-based curriculum developing the threefold reasoning chain: action levels - competence levels - curriculum levels. This will also offer an analysis of problems in professional performance by emphasizing (i) change of the working environment that relates to the demands of the knowledge-driven economy; (ii) interconnection between the action level and the competence level; (iii) transfer of competences into the new working environment. On the one hand, this will involve some consideration of differences in understanding of key competences as well as discussion on contextualization and transformation of key competencies responding to challenges of the knowledge-driven economy. On the other hand, the response of higher education curriculum to the need for the transferable competences and its development will question the approaches to the curriculum design (i) disciplinary; (ii) functional; (iii) competence-based; and the character of knowledge in higher education. Results of the empirical inquiry will be presented in the frame of content analysis of business programs in higher education.