TITLE:
Challenges and Optimization Strategies for Vocational College Students’ Career Adaptability in the Age of AI
AUTHORS:
Zhijie Qu
KEYWORDS:
Artificial Intelligence, Career Adaptability, Digital Education
JOURNAL NAME:
Chinese Studies,
Vol.15 No.3,
August
21,
2026
ABSTRACT: The rapid iteration of AI technology is reshaping workplace competency standards. In light of national policies such as the “Double High-Level Plan”, educational modernization initiatives, and stable employment mandates, existing cultivation systems and relevant theories exhibit notable deficiencies, necessitating systematic research on the cultivation of vocational college students’ career adaptability competencies. Current university career competency cultivation suffers from prominent shortcomings across five dimensions—university-industry collaboration, teaching systems, students’ comprehensive literacy, digital employment services, and supportive guarantee mechanisms—which exacerbate the structural mismatch between talent supply and demand. Taking a problem-oriented approach, this paper addresses the five practical dilemmas outlined above by introducing measures covering school-enterprise joint training, pedagogical reform, competency development, digital employment support and auxiliary guarantees, forming a closed-loop vocational competency improvement framework. Multidimensional collaborative cultivation reforms are expected to address students’ deficiencies in digital adaptability, alleviate the supply-demand contradictions in the AI-driven job market, and provide both theoretical and practical support for the reform of digital talent cultivation in higher education institutions.