Abstract. Introduction. The peculiarity of Russia is that it has historically developed and continues to exist as a multinational state. At present, the problems of preserving the culture and traditions of the peoples living in Russia, creating favorable conditions for their intercultural communication are coming to the fore in educational policy. In this regard, the training of specialists in the field of vocational education should ensure a high level of their ethno-cultural competence, social mobility, and create favorable conditions for their self-improvement in a multi-ethnic environment. The experience of our work convinces us that elements of ethno-design can be used as an effective means of developing the ethno-cultural competence of students, which we consider as a type of design and creative activity of students aimed at studying the cultural characteristics of the peoples living in the republic; acquaintance with various forms of arts and crafts; practical implementation of techniques for the manufacture and decoration of products made with the use of ethno-cultural motives. The purpose of the research is to study the role of ethno-design in the development of students' ethno-cultural competence. Materials and methods: theoretical analysis of the literature on the research problem, generalization, analysis. Today the Russian society makes qualitatively different requirements for the training of specialists. It is necessary to competently solve national problems, both at the state and at the local (city, district) level, at the level of the production or educational team. The issue of the development of ethno-cultural competence of students who are able to actively act in a multicultural educational environment is on the agenda. We stand on the position that ethno-cultural competence is a necessary set of personal qualities of a teacher, including high professionalism, knowledge, abilities and skills that allow the free use of cultural means and objects in an ethno-cultural environment. Ethno-design is considered in the article as an effective means of developing the ethno-cultural competence of students in the field of “Technology and Informatics”.