Institutions of higher education that prepare future specialists in the field of management must take into account new requirements for managers when building their educational programs and provide for the education of new competencies of future managers. Motivation is one of the most important and difficult to analyze factors that should be taken into account when building a training system for future managers. 3 groups of differences in the modern interpretation of the category “motivation” were analyzed. The first difference in the perception of the category “motivation” is caused by the fact that we study motivation on the one hand as a psychological function, on the other - as a managerial function. We consider it appropriate to call the first approach psychological (cognitive), and the second managerial (instrumental). The second difference is that different authors in psychological research group definitions of motivation in different ways. The third difference lies in the different hierarchy of the concepts “motivation” and “motive” in different interpretations. The first category of authors proposes to understand “motivation” as a secondary phenomenon in relation to the motive. In this case, the motive appears as an exogenous factor that is given to a person in a ready-made form, and motivation as an endogenous factor that manifests itself as a process of activity regulation with the help of a motive. The second category emphasizes that motives are secondary. The system of motivating the professional formation of future managers due to the detailing of the components (needs, value orientations, cognitive control, professional intentions, motives, goals) at the stages of opting and professional training is considered. An empirical method was chosen for the research: Holland’s professional personality type test. Respondents were asked to choose from 42 pairs of professions. The results of the study were analyzed from the point of view of the dominant types of activities of the applicants studying at the educational program “Management” of the Alfred Nobel University during 2022. 62 students of the “Management” specialty of I-IV years of bachelor’s studies took part in the empirical study. Based on data analysis, it was found that the predominant types of activities for students who chose management as their future professional direction are Artistic, Social and Entrepreneurial, which have the highest average indicators for the entire group of subjects.