For the first time, the theoretical fundamentals of social and psychological of high school students to enter higher education institutions have been grounded in the thesis. The author developed a structural and functional model of forming high school students’ social and psychological readiness to enter higher education institutions. This model included the target, theoretical and methodological, organizational and content, evaluation and effective blocks, including personal and target, information and gnostic, and reflexive and evaluation components. The following criteria have been used: motivational and target, information and cognitive, cognitive, indicators and levels. First, the author conducted a theoretical analysis of the state of the problem’s research. It was found out that there is a problem of an imbalance of supply and demand of professionally qualified personnel in the labour market and educational services in Ukrainian society. It is one of the reasons for the low level of effectiveness of the career guidance system for schoolchildren, which does not allow the individual to predict a successful career trajectory even at school. The consequence is the dissatisfaction of individuals with the chosen profession, unformed motivation to work, opacity of career prospects and weak adaptation in the labour market. The fundamental concepts of the study are clarified. The “readiness” is considered a stable integrated quality of the individual, which is based on the motives, knowledge, experience, practical skills and abilities necessary for the successful performance of a particular activity. The author proposed the definition of the concept of “social and psychological readiness of high school students for a profession’s choice” as an integrated quality of personality, characterized by the presence and a certain level of formation of personal and target, informational and gnostic, reflexive and evaluative components in their unity, which is seen in the desire and ability of high school students to profession’s choice.. The author substantiated the structural and functional model of the formation of social and psychological readiness of high school students to enter higher education institutions. It includes target, theoretical and methodological, organizational and content, evaluation and effective blocks. The blocks include personal and target, information and gnostic, reflexive and evaluation components, and the following criteria: motivational and target, information and cognitive, cognitive, indicators and levels. The developed model consists of three stages of high school students' social and psychological readiness to enter higher education institutions. They are as follows: motivational and value bases of career guidance, career guidance-significant competencies (soft skills), professional self-awareness (professional self-concept)
