This article analyzes changes in the labor market and considers the need for special training of future workers in professional educational organizations for self-employment. For this, the readiness of students of secondary vocational education to self-employment in the labor market is necessary. As methodological approaches, the activity, competence and personality-oriented approaches are proposed, which allow the process of preparing future self-employed workers from the point of view of the current social and economic situation in Russia. The definition of the concept "self-employment" for a graduate of a technical school is given. A hypothetical table is proposed that shows a possible variant of justifying the differences between a "self-employed" worker and an "entrepreneur" in their legal and regulatory provisions.

Keywords: Self-employment, self-employed, entrepreneurship, preparation for self-employment, vocational education, readiness to self-employment.