Among the qualities of today's school graduate, the ones that are becoming more and more important are those that determine the ability to compete. These qualities include intercultural competence, which both researchers and practitioners all over the world acknowledge to be one of the most important characteristics of any citizen who engages in interethnic contacts. One definition of intercultural competence that is important in practical terms was offered by the American psychologist D. Matsumoto. In this article, the authors look at the usefulness of intercultural competence in different situations and discuss how intercultural competence serves as a competitive advantage of secondary school graduates. They focus first on its importance in the case of work (Matsumoto). Intercultural competence, as an effective attitude toward representatives of other nations, is becoming an important component of any individual's ability to compete. This makes the problem of timely relevance in the appropriate training of school graduates. The theoretical and practical aspects of the importance of interethnic interaction and intercultural competence have prompted the authors to deal more seriously with this problem. They cite two surveys that have been conducted in recent years in Irkutsk oblast and analyze the information obtained in the surveys.