The article reveals the importance of motivational component in preparing competitive teachers in an ever-changing world and focuses on the future teacher’s motivation to develop multipotential abilities at different stages of his/her higher education. The in-depth interviews conducted among 1st–4th year students of the Institute of Psychology and Education of Kazan Federal University revealed the most important groups of students’ motives for the development of multipotential abilities, as well as the differences between the motives of first and last year students. This fact indicates that student teachers’ motivation changes throughout the period of their study at the university. This paper contributes to the research on the development of multipotential abilities of future teachers in the system of higher education by providing new data on the motives that motivate students to participate in various activities during their study to acquire new skills and competencies.