This research presents the perception of undergraduate engineering students in the development of the competence "life- long learning" during a laboratory practice. The main topic of the session is "the learning curve" applied to human-systems integration problems, and specifically involves the design of a training plan for the handling of fire extinguishers using a fire simulator. Students were introduced to a challenge: to analyze and to model the learning process and the impact of the forgetting factor. The results obtained confirm that the proposal contributes to the development of knowledge and enables addressing professional skills such as "life-long learning".