Universities teach mainly specialized subjects and the liberal arts. Society expects university students to gain certain basic skills important when working for a company. These skills can be divided broadly into action, thinking, and teamwork. The purpose of this paper is to propose a method of project-based education for developing fundamental competencies for working persons. Many studies have been reported on educational methods with project management techniques, but few have considered project-based education aiming at improving fundamental competencies for working persons. If these competencies can be developed through project-based education, it will be possible to develop not only teamwork skills, but also a wide range of skills involving action as well as thinking. The traditional Japanese university curriculum comprises specialized subjects and the liberal arts. The author proposes the addition of project-based education to develop basic skills needed in the workforce. This research proposes an education model for basic competency training and examines the educational outcomes by studying results of a cooking tool project assigned to university students. The model includes Teoriya Resheniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch （TRIZ, a Russian acronym for the theory of inventive problem solving）, a World Cafe, and the SECI process （a process of knowledge creation comprised of socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization in knowledge management） in the hope that this model will be conducive to implementing effective project-based learning. This research concludes that it is possible to develop the basic skills needed by university students in society through project-based learning under a basic skills education model.
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