Abstract:

Personal and professional self-development of college students is a vital task of educating adolescents. This age is the threshold of new development periods, which goes together with the change of life goals and professional self-determination. Middle and late adolescence is marked by the rise of a new need – the need of self-development. This need involves choosing future profession and deciding on personally significant professional values. Future profession and professional values can become an indispensable reference point in life, helping adolescents preserve steady ideals, values-based attitude towards themselves and the surrounding world.

Methods:
The analysis of works on pedagogy and psychology, uncovering the age characteristics of adolescents, the specificity of their life-purpose orientation in choosing personally significant professional values. The case-study of personal and professional characteristics of students, and of the diversity range in professional self-development motivation. Empirical methods: observation, questionnaire, opinion poll.

Results:
Fostering professional self-development of college students requires a number of conditions: result-oriented teacher-student cooperation at all stages of college education, students’ adaptation and evolvement as subjects of activity, a steady interest and motivation in learning, teacher-student cooperation in the evaluation of learning roadmap and professionally significant activities, the development of personal competencies, as well as the involvement of students into scientific research and real professional activity.

Conclusion:
Building motivation- and values-based attitude to professional self-development in college students is the starting point of their professional self-realization.

Keywords:

Professional self-development, adolescence, competence, motivation- and values-based attitude.