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Abstract: The article describes the early stages of the process of creation of assessment indicators for measuring the level of formation of the students’ competence in higher education programs (on the level of training specialists). The need for their development is determined by the desire to improve the quality of education and the level of preparation of graduates for practical activity. Involving employers in assessing the competence of specialists is determined by the requirement to improve the quality of education. The article discusses the methodological issues of creation of assessment tools: length of training; heterogeneity of the content of academic disciplines forming professional competences; competition with academic indicators and assessment criteria. The problems may be overcome via studying the employer opinions about the indicators and criteria of assessment of the competence of future specialists. The article presents the procedure and results of such a study. The opinions were collected with the help of a specially designed questionnaire. The questionnaire structure corresponds to the three main tasks of designing assessment tools: determination of typical professional activities (functions), of indicators demonstrating the ability of the students to perform the necessary professional functions, and of the criteria allowing assessment of these indicators. The employers’ opinions have been processed through the methods of content analysis and statistical evaluation of opinions unanimity (calculation of variation and concordance coefficients). The results of the opinion study have led to the conclusion that the graduates’ activity is assessed by the employer in six areas (kinds of professional functions). Their assessment is carried out on the basis of the following criteria: a) knowledge (volume of concepts and their depth); b) skills (accuracy of actions and their structure). The authors come to the conclusion that generalization and analysis of the employer representatives’ opinions make it possible to reveal typical areas of professional activity and to supplement the academic indicators of competence assessment with the professionally relevant ones.