The article highlights the problem of social responsibility of the individual, which reflects his moral and legal attitude to society, compliance with accepted norms and rules in society, fulfillment of their duties and willingness to take responsibility for their own actions. The author argues the necessity of researching social responsibility of future specialists in social sphere as their responsible professional behavior, which affects the well-being of clients, team and country. The focus is on the role of an educational institution in forming in students the understanding of social responsibility as a basic value in society and a tool for solving a variety of social problems. The types of formation of students' social responsibility are analyzed, namely: socially responsible, socially oriented, socially passive and antisocial type. The following structural components of social responsibility, criteria for assessing their formation and indicators are identified: indicative and prognostic (in which social predictability is an evealuation criterion; knowledge of basic socially acceptable strategies of role behavior and social values, ability to anticipate personal and socially significant consequences action are indicators of the level of formation), motivational and value (prosaic orientation as an evaluation criterion; altruistic motives of social behavior, prosaic value orientations, a wide range of responsibilities as indicators of the level of formation), emotional and volitional (involved independence is an evaluation criterion; the ability to empathy their behavior, the nature of the attribution of responsibility are indicators of the level of formation); behavioral (excessive social activity is an evaluation criterion; the ability to show initiative, the desire to go beyond mastering the content of social roles, the ability to perform additional responsibilities are indicators of the level of formation). The low, medium and high levels of formation of social responsibility in future specialists in the social sphere are characterized. Suggestions for further research in this area are made.