Algorithmic Optimization-Based Skill Development Strategies for Vocational Education Students and Their Employability Enhancement
Publié en ligne: 19 mars 2025
Reçu: 01 nov. 2024
Accepté: 24 févr. 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/amns-2025-0545
Mots clés
© 2025 Yumin Wang, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Innovation is the inexhaustible power of development, the driving force for national development and social progress, and innovation in various fields starts from accepting new ideas and things [1-2]. In production practice, the discovery and application of new ideas can promote the improvement of production efficiency, can improve the quality of products, to create more value for the production, then it can be summarized into an operational theory that can be applied in practice, the theory of the promotion and fusion, you can let it have practical skills, and then applied in the industry can promote its development, this is the basic process of training innovation in operational skills This is the basic process of cultivating the innovative power of operational skills [3-4]. The link between it and production is very close, that is, it originates from production, and at the same time, it will have a counter effect on the actual production, and accordingly, it will measure the long-term productivity level. After graduation, vocational education students need to apply their learned skills in the workplace, and the characteristics of vocational schooling also focus on students’ skill development [5-6]. China’s vocational schools have a rich variety of specialties, a relatively abundant source of students, and a lot of enterprise counterparts, etc., vocational students and enterprises also have a close link between the operating skills of students and innovation training can promote the development of students, so that they can gradually improve the ability to employment, and then can also promote the development of enterprise creativity and productivity [7-8]. In addition, vocational colleges and universities also continue to innovate the training mode, the innovation ability, spirit and awareness as the key content of student training, and effectively promote the effective enhancement of students’ comprehensive innovation ability, so as to achieve greater results in the real work [9-10].
Accelerating the construction of a modern vocational education system and cultivating more high-quality technical and skilled personnel, vocational school students’ skill development is faced with challenges that directly affect the quality of secondary education and the development of secondary school students. Literature [11] used teachers of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rivers State, to collect research data through structured questionnaire method, which was analyzed to show that school/industry collaboration has improved students’ vocational skills acquisition to a great extent. Literature [12] explored improvement strategies for skills development in new areas of TVET programs in Nigeria to improve skills development in TVET programs from obtaining high quality, effective supervision of students in industrial training and provision of appropriate teaching and learning facilities. Literature [13] discussed the concept of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and examined how the skills gap can be bridged to meet the 21st century technical, vocational education and training schools in collaboration with the workplace, which in turn will produce skilled manpower with employable and self-reliant skills. Literature [14] emphasized the importance of the critical balance of hard skills and interpersonal skills for vocational education and examined the perceptions of vocational teachers and students on the integration of interpersonal skills into the curriculum, the findings revealed significant gaps in the integration of well-rounded interpersonal skills into vocational education highlighting the urgency for the development and inclusion of new skills. Literature [15] points to the important role of VET education in addressing skills shortages and improving employability, and based on national policies, proposes strategies for integrating vocational education and training (VET) and skills development and evaluating their effectiveness. Literature [16] pointed out the importance of the competence of soft skills for today’s vocational graduates, and through SWOT analysis, proposed a strategy for improving soft skills of vocational high school students oriented to careers and 21st century learning, and the study has important implications for schools in the development of graduates in terms of their character and careers. Literature [17] highlights the needs faced by Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) globally and proposes recommendations for reforming TVET through public-private partnerships for skills development, the study has important implications in ensuring that learners are synchronized with developments in the world of work.
In addition, literature [18] provides insights into the impact of AI on the labor market before examining the impact of AI on the vocational and technical training system in terms of employment promotion, decent work, and lifelong learning, which in turn promotes the sustainable development of students’ skills and improves their employability. Literature [19] takes Ghana as an example and proposes four basic strategies for improving the entrepreneurial skills of vocational and technical students including learner/student-centered education, problem-based learning, and classrooms that encourage intellectual development and activity-based learning (ABL), and the study lays the foundation for policy formulation and curriculum development in developing countries. Literature [20] designed a questionnaire experiment to compare the employability skills of students in a study of technical and vocational education students in two countries, Thailand and Malaysia, which showed that most of the Malaysian students had higher employability skills than the Thai students, pointing out that vocational education institutions should carefully assess the quality of the engineering-learning environment in order to effectively prepare their students for their professional work and careers in the ever-changing workplaces Preparation. Literature [21] draws on a number of frameworks and models to propose a series of strategies for developing employability skills of vocational education graduates, and empirical analysis verifies that the proposed strategies increase awareness and intentionality of both overt and covert methods used by vocational educators to improve students’ employability. Literature [22] attempted to introduce reinforcement learning algorithms within the framework of Seahorse Optimization Probability Education (SHOPE) in order to optimize the development of practical skills in higher vocational and technical education, and the effectiveness of reinforcement learning algorithms in improving vocational teaching strategies, skill assessment processes and classification tasks in educational contexts was verified by several experimental analyses. Literature [23] after a questionnaire survey concluded that vocational and technical training can provide students with skills for job creation and sustainable economic development in Nigeria and made some recommendations to help effectively manage the provision of vocational and technical education and training. Literature [24] proposed a data-driven intelligent tutoring system based on deep learning and verified the superior performance of the proposed system through real-life case studies, which showed good results in supporting and accelerating the skill acquisition process.
This paper first investigates the skill development level of vocational education students, and then analyzes the factors affecting the skill development of vocational education VET students. Then, the data were obtained by means of questionnaire research, and the results were analyzed by descriptive statistics as well as the cross-analysis of relevant factors and vocational education students’ skill development. Then, binary logistic regression was used for empirical evidence in order to determine which factors have an impact on the willingness to demand the level of skill development of vocational education students and the direction of the impact, and the ISM model was used to further determine the hierarchical structure of these factors. Based on this basis, the level of students’ employability is quantified and the correlation between vocational education students’ employability development strategies and employability is analyzed.
In this paper, when researching the contents of vocational students’ employment skill development, the “Vocational Education Students’ Skill Development Questionnaire” is used as the basis support, and the results of the questionnaire are utilized as the theoretical basis of the analysis. The questionnaire has a total of 32 survey content, covering the use of employment methods and other aspects, which need to be reflected in the questionnaire design. We use Excel and SPSS17.0 software to analyze the results of the questionnaire, so we can greatly improve the effectiveness and scientific analysis. In the process for the previous data statistics, will directly utilize the five-point calculation method, the use of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, respectively, very much agree, relatively agree, uncertain, relatively disagree, very much disagree to express.
In this paper, 200 sample data of vocational education students’ employment in vocational education schools in city A were randomly selected as the object of this research, and the content of the research mainly includes students’ operational employment skills employment level training.
Through the survey statistics, it can be seen that more than half of the students are satisfied with their employment skills training, which is relatively high. So on this basis, it can be seen that in the process of education, there is still a large space for students’ skill stimulation and cultivation.
General Analysis
Students’ satisfaction with their own skills training is shown in Figure 1. In the content can be seen, the national key vocational colleges and universities and general colleges based on the comparative analysis can be seen, the students of the two schools are more satisfied with their employment skills. For the students of national key vocational colleges and universities, 67.03% of the respondents chose “very satisfied” and “more satisfied”, while the total proportion of general colleges and universities is 61.83%, which can be seen through the specific analysis, both of which exceed 60%. More than 60%. That is to say, in the actual survey process, the proportion of very satisfied and relatively satisfied people is relatively large, and the final results of the options can also maintain a certain degree of consistency. At this stage, more than half of the students are satisfied with the process of their own employment skills training, so on this basis, there is still a lot of room to stimulate the potential of students. Only 12.05% of the respondents from national key vocational schools chose “relatively dissatisfied” and “very dissatisfied” in response to the question about their satisfaction with their employment skills, while the total percentage of students from general colleges and universities was 19.12%. It can be seen that in this regard, general vocational schools have a larger share in it compared to national key vocational schools, reflecting the fact that students are more recognized and affirmed of their potential for employability skills, and therefore have very optimistic prospects for development. However, since national key vocational schools have stronger faculties than general institutions, their advantages in terms of employment skills development are also relatively more obvious, thus creating a higher level of satisfaction. Therefore, under this precondition, general institutions should strengthen the development of students’ innovative consciousness, so that students can enhance their employment skills in practice.

Students’ satisfaction with their skills
Analysis of differences
In terms of the difference analysis targeting the cultivation of operational skills, the research was mainly based on five different dimensions. The results of the difference analysis of the current situation of the cultivation of employment factors of middle-level students are shown in Table 1. It can be seen through the analysis of the status quo survey that there is a correlation between students’ satisfaction with their own skills and the variability of variables at this stage. Most of the students are satisfied with their employment skills ability.
For vocational schools, due to the different factors that affect the level of students’ skill training, there is a significant difference in the degree of students’ satisfaction with their own skill development. The teachers’ arrangement of the teaching program and the process of acquiring new knowledge and timely transmission will have an impact on students’ employment awareness, in contrast to the changes in textbooks and teaching programs. In terms of cultural foundation, there is a significant difference between it and students’ satisfaction with employment and the effectiveness of employment practices. There is a significant positive correlation between students’ professionalism and their satisfaction with employment (P=0.0000); and there is a small difference between the change of teaching programs and textbooks and students’ employment. And there is a significant positive correlation (p less than 0.05) between faculty strength and students’ employment satisfaction, employment awareness development and employment knowledge acquisition.
By analyzing the relevant data in the table, it is not difficult to find that for students in vocational colleges and universities, due to the different majors studied and gender differences, it leads to a very big difference in the acquisition of innovative knowledge in schools, and this difference mainly refers to the fact that different individuals will use different ways and means to learn innovative knowledge, and the degree of interest is also different. Whether the innovation is based on imitation or practice, it will stimulate students’ awareness of innovation. There is also a significant difference in gender, which occurs because vocational schools have begun to develop students’ operational skills and innovativeness at a higher standard. Its starting point and goal is to provide more professional skills to the community, so schools in professional settings usually have practical aspects regarding automotive maintenance and other specialties. These majors in the learning process, need to be physics, mechanics or engineering, mathematics and computer technology and other knowledge application, and boys are usually very good at this knowledge, so compared to girls, boys have more opportunities to obtain innovative knowledge. This characteristic also shows that boys can occupy a certain advantage over girls in the process of cultivating innovative consciousness and ability, especially in the subjects and knowledge that boys are good at, which can maximize their innovative consciousness.
The difference analysis results of the status of employment factors
Influencing factor | Difference test | Gender | An only child | Birthplace | Professional type |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cultural foundation | t | 2.5263* | 4.5574* | 0.8505 | 3.8087* |
Sig. | 0.0079 | 0.0000 | 0.492 | 0.0000 | |
Professionalism | t | 0.9637 | 0.0082 | 0.663 | 2.5209* |
Sig. | 0.2808 | 0.9995 | 0.5239 | 0.0015 | |
Teaching plan | t | 3.0756* | 0.5653 | 0.7894 | 3.4589* |
Sig. | 0.0048 | 0.4662 | 0.9015 | 0.0000 | |
Textbook change | t | 1.2093 | 0.3982 | 0.4642 | 1.9207 |
Sig. | 0.1125 | 0.7986 | 0.4747 | 0.063 | |
faculty | t | 0.0824 | 0.8374 | 0.4486 | 1.6564 |
Sig. | 0.8345 | 0.4716 | 0.6804 | 0.1066 |
Each of them has a different professional basis and purpose for studying, some of them study out of hobbies, some of them further their studies to improve the quality of their business, while some of them study out of self-enrichment. While some of these students have no experience with employment training, others have attended it and now have practical experience in employment. The different professional bases will make it difficult to satisfy all students in terms of teaching progress, because for some employment theories and operational problems, some people will know them by themselves or will know them as soon as they have heard them, but others will need a long time to digest and absorb them.
Break away from the teaching tradition of emphasizing theoretical teaching and neglecting practical skills training. Specialized courses in employment studies generally only involve a part of practical operation in basic employment, while the rest is basically theoretical teaching. Although a long period of teaching deeper theoretical knowledge of the textbook can make students fully understand the relevant content of employment, but when it comes to the practical level, many students are simply unable to skillfully master the basic employment skills.
Since employment personnel must handle the economic affairs of enterprises according to the relevant laws and regulations of China, the courses for employment personnel must also cover these laws and regulations. For example, employment law, company law, enterprise employment guidelines, enterprise income tax and other related laws and regulations, once these laws and regulations have been changed and updated, the employment of professional course materials should be updated, and the updating of teaching materials often lags behind the updating of laws and regulations. This has caused many problems for the training of students and the teaching process of teachers.
As regards the school, it is common for one teacher to teach several courses, and the teaching workload is quite heavy, which objectively reduces the opportunity to attend training. In the professional teaching team, some teachers have rich experience in theoretical teaching and practical teaching, but there are also some young teachers who have just graduated, although their knowledge structure is relatively new, but they lack practical experience, which makes them theoreticalize the training of students in the process of teaching participation, thus affecting the cultivation of students’ skills in vocational education.
Logistic model
In multiple regression modeling [25], it is common to use linear regression model and Logistic model [26] and so on. Linear regression models require that the explanatory variable must be a continuous variable, while the explanatory variable in this study is the respondents’ willingness to demand for student employment, and any respondent can only choose to be willing to be employed or not to be employed. This is a typical dichotomous discrete variable that is not suitable for direct use as an explanatory variable in a linear regression model. In actual research, the logistic regression analysis method does not require a linear relationship between the explanatory variable and the explained variable to be analyzed, and has become one of the most commonly used research methods. In this paper, we study how the binary dependent variable is affected by other independent variables. Therefore, we choose a logistic model to analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. In the model, whether students have the willingness to be employed is set as the explanatory variable, which is denoted by
Further express the above equation as a linear combination of a set of independent variables:
Where,
ISM model
Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) [27] is a structural modeling technique based on qualitative analysis, which divides a complex system into several subsystems and converts ambiguous ideas into a multilevel model with intuitive structural relationships. In this paper, the ISM model is used to do further structural analysis of the logistically derived factors influencing the significance of the willingness to demand to identify the main influencing factors. The model first uses directed connectivity diagrams to describe the variable relationships, then derives the reachability matrix and reduces it to derive the hierarchical matrix, and finally derives the multilevel recursive ranked directed graphs and builds the explanatory structural model.
Firstly, there are
Secondly, the reachability matrix
where 1 is the unit matrix, 2 ≤ λ ≤
Next, the hierarchical relationship between the demand influences is found using the reachability matrix,
Students’ willingness to demand employment was used as the dependent variable. The specific independent variables selected based on the results of the cross-tabulation analysis above were divided into the following areas: individual characteristic variables, cultural foundation, professionalism, teaching program, novelty of teaching materials and faculty. The selection of variables and their specific descriptions are shown in Table 2.
Variable selection and specific instructions
Variable | Variable name | Valuation of variables | Impact direction prediction |
---|---|---|---|
Y | Job improvement | Hoisting = 1, Unascension = 2 | |
X1 | Gender | Male = 1, female = 2 | Reverse |
X2 | An only child | Yes = 1, no = 2 | Reverse |
X3 | Cultural foundation | Middle school and the following = 1 High school = 2 Undergraduate = 3 Graduate student and above = 4 | Forward |
X4 | Professionalism | High = = 1 Medium = 2 Low = = 3 | Forward |
X5 | Teaching plan | Plan = 1 Unplanned = 2 | Forward |
X6 | Textbook change | Timely change of = 1 The change of time and time = 2 | Forward |
X7 | faculty | The teacher strength is strong = 1, The faculty is moderate and moderate = 2, Weak teacher power = 3 | Forward |
In this study, Logistic binary regression analysis was carried out on the data of 200 samples of vocational education students’ employment using econometric analysis software SPSS 21.0. The resulting model one after testing the significance of each influencing factor variable through the Logistic model, followed by screening one or more of the non-significant variables using Wald’s method based on the corresponding probability values, and then re-fitting the regression equation and testing it after removing the variable with the lowest Wald’s value. In this study, the variables were screened repeatedly until all of them reached statistical significance at the 10% level of significance, and finally, Model II was obtained. The results of the regression of the logistic model student skill development influencing factors are shown in Table 3. The results show that the significance of Model II in the Hosmer-Lemeschow test is 0.9885, and its value is greater than 0.05, which indicates that the difference between the predicted and actual observed values of the model is not significant, and the model’s goodness-of-fit performance is good. In the chi-square test it is learned that the model is statistically significant with a significance level of 0.000, which is less than 0.05, which means that the hypothesis that all coefficients except the constant term are zero can be rejected, which indicates that the data of the independent variable can provide a valid explanation of whether the event occurs or not. We can see that the prediction accuracy of model 2 is 97.98%, which indicates that the model has a better prediction effect. Overall, the regression model has good goodness of fit, strong explanatory and predictive abilities, and the regression results obtained have a high degree of confidence.
The influence factors of the logistic model students’ skills were returned
Variable | Model 1 | Model 2 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Regression coefficient | Wald value | Sig. | Regression coefficient | Wald value | sig | |
Gender | 0.2807 | 0.2248 | 0.6291 | 0.9187 | 7.7267 | 0.0043 |
An only child | -0.0927 | 0.0378 | 0.8484 | -1.1071 | 3.4464 | 0.0549 |
Cultural foundation | 0.0857 | 0.0184 | 0.8329 | 0.83184 | 4.6824 | 0.0257 |
Professionalism | 0.4266 | 9.6674 | 0.0019 | 0.8357 | 4.7714 | 0.0236 |
Teaching plan | 0.0285 | 0.1193 | 0.639 | 0.4452 | 20.0696 | 0.0000 |
Textbook change | 0.025 | 0.0183 | 0.9009 | 0.1531 | 12.381 | 0.0027 |
-2Log likelihood | 95.5051 | 100.5236 | ||||
Cox&Snell R2 | 0.2684 | 0.2537 | ||||
Nagelkerke R2 | 0.6158 | 0.5856 | ||||
H-L Tests | Sig = 0.9893 | Sig = 0.9885 | ||||
sig | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | ||||
Model prediction accuracy(%) | 96.81 | 95.98 |
Based on the final arithmetic results of the Logistic model, the hierarchical and potential logical relationships of the five influencing factors, namely, cultural foundation, professionalism, updating of teaching materials, teaching program, and faculty strength, are organized. The structural model that explains students’ skill development is depicted in Fig. 2, and the factors are connected and influenced by each other, which together affect the process of students’ skill development. Among them, cultural foundation, professionalism, and updating of teaching materials are at the level of superficial direct influencing factors; teaching program is the middle indirect influencing factor; and faculty strength is the deep root influencing factor.

Students’ skills cultivate the interpretation structure model
The results of the overall data description of vocational education students’ employability are shown in Table 4. As can be seen from the table, the students’ scores in 17 areas, such as communication skills, time management, and leadership skills, are between 3.9201 and 4.6127 points. Comprehensive analysis found that it can be seen that there are still some problems on the internship in the development of leadership and innovation ability (less than 4 points), while the other data overall high, are higher than 4 points, indicating that the enterprise internship does have a significant enhancement of the students’ employability. Next, an overall descriptive statistical analysis of each of the four dimensions of employability is needed. In terms of general competence, professional competence, learning attitude and career planning and confidence, the mean values of students’ scores are 4.1895, 4.3231, 4.2255 and 4.5053 respectively. The students’ mean score in career planning and confidence is the highest after the internship, which shows that it is extremely helpful to the students’ future planning ability after the internship, and the mean score is the lowest in general ability, which shows that the internship is relatively weak in improving the general ability.
The overall data description of the employment ability
Employment capacity | Mean value | Standard deviation | Capacity category | Ability mean |
---|---|---|---|---|
Communication ability | 4.1827 | 1.1209 | General ability | 4.1895 |
Time management | 4.2932 | 0.8584 | ||
leadership | 3.9949 | 1.0509 | ||
Innovative ability | 3.9201 | 0.7873 | ||
Cooperative ability | 4.3515 | 0.9637 | ||
Foreign language level | 4.1434 | 0.7001 | ||
Emotional control and pressure | 4.4407 | 0.899 | ||
Professional knowledge and skills | 4.7817 | 1.0493 | Professional ability | 4.3231 |
Employability level | 4.1557 | 1.0983 | ||
Employment theory knowledge application level | 4.1956 | 1.0627 | ||
Problem-solving ability | 4.1594 | 1.1331 | ||
Learning will | 4.2646 | 0.8738 | Learning attitude | 4.2255 |
Adaptive ability | 4.3524 | 0.8085 | ||
Work dedication | 4.0595 | 0.8704 | ||
Career planning ability | 4.4001 | 0.726 | Career planning and confidence | 4.5053 |
Job guidance | 4.5031 | 0.6778 | ||
Job search | 4.6127 | 1.1034 |
The results of the correlation analysis of the factors affecting the level of employment of students after internship are shown in Table 5. The results are as follows: in terms of general competence, the Pearson coefficient of correlation between employability and employment level enhancement is 0.1924, and the level of significance is 0.0019. It indicates that in terms of general competence, the level of employment is significantly and positively correlated with the enhancement of employability, i.e., the higher the level of employment, the better the enhancement of students’ employability after internships. In terms of professional ability, the Pearson coefficient of the correlation between employability and employability enhancement is 0.2638, and the level of significance is less than 0.05. It indicates that in terms of professional ability, the level of employment is significantly positively correlated with the enhancement of employability, i.e., the better the professional knowledge is mastered, the better the enhancement of students’ employability after internship. In terms of learning attitude, the Pearson coefficient of the correlation between employability and employability enhancement is 0.2509, the significance level is less than 0.01. It indicates that, in terms of learning attitude, employment level is significantly positively correlated with the enhancement of employability. In terms of career planning and confidence, the Pearson coefficient of the correlation between employability and employability enhancement is 0.2484, and the level of significance is less than 0.01. It indicates that in terms of career planning and confidence, the level of employment is significantly and positively correlated with the enhancement of employability. The comprehensive analysis found that the higher the employment level of vocational education students in general competence, professional competence, and employment attitude, the more objective their employability is.
The results of the analysis of the influence factors of the industry level
Correlation factor | Pearson coefficient | Significance |
---|---|---|
General ability - employment capacity | 0.1924 | 0.0119 |
Professional ability - employment capacity | 0.2638 | 0.0000 |
Attitude to learning - employment ability | 0.2509 | 0.0002 |
Career planning and confidence - employment | 0.2484 | 0.0003 |
In this paper, the employability of vocational education students was investigated first, after which the factors affecting the development of vocational education students’ employability skills were elaborated, and finally a Logistic model was established to analyze the influencing factors of students’ skills and realize the optimization of skills development in vocational education schools.
The significance of the improved Logistic model is 0.9885, and the goodness of fit of the model shows good performance. In addition, the prediction effect of Model II is better, and its prediction accuracy is 97.98%.
The results of the questionnaire showed that the mean values of the survey results of the students’ skills in 17 indicators such as communication skills, time management and adaptability ranged from 3.9201-4.7817. After categorizing the 17 indicators into four dimensions of general ability, professional ability, learning attitude and career planning and confidence, the mean value of their indicators is greater than 4 points, which obviously achieves the purpose of employability training.
Among the four dimensions of general ability, professional ability, learning attitude and career planning and confidence, their Pearson coefficients related to the enhancement of employment level are 0.1924, 0.2638, 0.2509 and 0.2484 respectively, with the significance of 0.0119, 0.0000, 0.0002 and 0.0003. It is evident that vocational education students’ general ability, professional competence, and employment attitude in the higher level of employment, the more objective the employability.
Research and Practice of Higher Education Reform of Henan Provincial Department of Education (Key) Project (Employment and Entrepreneurship Guidance): Exploration and practice of vocational college students under the background of production and education (Project No.: 2024SJGLX1086).
Research and Practice of Vocational Education Teaching Reform in Henan Province in 2023: “Research and practice of talent training mode of” focusing on chain construction and sharing four dimensions of Shuanghui College under the background of the development of urban leading industry (Project No.: Yujiao 〔2024〕 05752).