The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the relationship between the potential readiness of future teachers for lifelong education and the level of development of meta-competence and to develop recommendations on this basis for creating conditions in the university for the development of students' meta-cognitive abilities. Research methods and materials. The study involved 748 students enrolled in teacher education programs. Studied: the level of formation of future teachers of psychological, strategic and competence-based readiness for lifelong education (questionnaire survey); the level of development of their worldview ("Methodology of worldview activity" by D.A. Leontyev, A.N. Ilchenko), intellectual ("Mental performance and the type of intelligence" by B.N. Ryzhov), cognitive ("Methodology for assessing the systemic nature of thinking" I.A. Sychev) and operational-procedural (methods for identifying the level of formation of mental operations (methods for identifying the ability to analyze, compare, generalize and classify) components of metacompetence. Comparative (chi-square test, Student's t-test) and correlation (Spearman's correlation coefficient ) analyzes. Results. A close relationship was revealed between the indicators of the potential readiness of future teachers for lifelong pedagogical education and individual components of metacompetence, characteristics of students' worldview, their intelligence and cognitive abilities. Conclusion. The results of the study suggest that the formation of future teachers' readiness for lifelong education should be based not only and not so much on stimulating their motivational activity, but also on creating conditions for the development of their worldview, intelligence, systemic, creative thinking and general cognitive abilities.