TITLE:
From Skill Training to Competency Generation: Construction and Empirical Validation of a Job Competency Model for Health and Elderly Care Professional Clusters in Higher Vocational Education
AUTHORS:
Zhuo Wang, Jincheng Xu, Zhen Li
KEYWORDS:
Health Industry, Higher Vocational Education, Health and Elderly Care Professional Clusters, Job Competency, Curriculum Matching, New Livelihood Skills Map
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.7,
July
23,
2026
ABSTRACT: The development of the health industry has driven the transformation of talent cultivation in health and elderly care-related professional clusters in higher vocational education from single-skill training toward the generation of composite job competencies. To construct a competency model that meets the demands of emerging health industry occupations, this study develops a three-dimensional job competency model consisting of professional technical competency, comprehensive professional quality, and innovation and digital competency based on competency theory, occupational competency structure theory, and digital competency frameworks. Curriculum matching is introduced as an external validation variable. Empirical tests were conducted using 80 pilot-test samples, 197 exploratory samples, and 199 validation samples. The results indicate that: 1) Health industry job competency can be stably classified into three dimensions: professional technical competency, comprehensive professional quality, and innovation and digital competency; 2) The four-dimensional measurement model comprising PT, CQ, ID, and CM demonstrates satisfactory reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity; 3) Curriculum matching significantly and positively affects professional technical competency, comprehensive professional quality, innovation and digital competency, as well as overall job competency, with relatively stronger effects on professional technical competency and comprehensive professional quality. The findings suggest that talent cultivation in health and elderly care professional clusters should shift from a traditional skill-oriented approach toward composite competency generation. Curriculum content, curriculum-cluster coordination, authentic training projects, and alignment with industry demands should serve as key mechanisms for constructing a competency map that addresses the emerging livelihood needs of the health industry.