Objectives:
The purpose of this article is to describe the importance of education in the development of intercultural competence of future employees and managers, from the students’ perspective. Current students will be future employees and managers, and many of them will work in multicultural teams, hence their opinion on the educational challenges related to developing intercultural competence is particularly important.

Material and methods:
The research problem is an attempt to answer the question: how do students perceive the importance of education (studies) in the development of their intercultural competences necessary for future work in the conditions of cultural differences? The research methods used are a review of the literature on the subject and reference to the results of 12 individual in-depth interviews with Polish and Spanish students.

Results:
Higher education plays an important role in the development of students’ intercultural competences and is the foundation for successfully preparing them to work in an environment of cultural differences. The intercultural competence of employees and managers is essential for effective functioning and good cooperation in teams where colleagues come from different cultural backgrounds.

Conclusions:
Higher education is responsible for preparing students to act in a flexible, adaptive and intercultural manner in today’s working environment. Lecturers responsible for subjects related to, inter alia, managing people under conditions of cultural differences, should pay particular attention to the development of students’ intercultural competences by influencing their attitudes, behaviours, communication and interpersonal skills necessary to act efficiently in multicultural environments.