Keywords
School-enterprise collaboration
Career guidance
Synergetics
Case study
How to Cite
Abstract
As the global labor market transitions toward digitalization and green economies, bridging the school-to-work gap through effective career guidance has become a critical challenge for higher vocational education. Drawing on synergetics, this study investigates the operational mechanism of school-enterprise collaborative career guidance in China. Using a qualitative case study approach at College A in Chongqing, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 29 stakeholders and field observations of six typical collaborative activities. The findings reveal significant “synergy failures” within the current mechanism, characterized by fragmented information flows, structurally disconnected faculty capacity, siloed cross-departmental coordination, and imbalanced interest allocation. These structural barriers ultimately lead to persistent mismatches in students’ career clarity, skill development, and job-major alignment. To transition the system from fragmented operation to synergetic evolution, this study argues that institutional optimization must move beyond isolated interventions. It proposes a deeply integrated “synergetic governance” model that couples information sharing, cross-empowered teaching staff, unified managerial coordination, and mutual interest realization. This research contributes to international debates on vocational education governance and provides actionable insights for countries seeking to enhance youth employability through multi-actor collaboration.
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