Digital Competence and Talent Training Effectiveness in Vocational Undergraduate Education: Evidence from a Faculty Survey in China

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-758-3_42How to use a DOI?

Keywords

digital competence; educational effectiveness; vocational higher education; digital transformation; teacher capability; China

Abstract

This research investigates the influence of faculty digital competence on talent cultivation effectiveness within China’s vocational undergraduate sector, contextualized by the country’s evolving modern vocational education system. As digital transformation reshapes both industry demands and educational practices, understanding how teacher capabilities influence talent cultivation has become increasingly important. Leveraging survey responses from 298 instructors and employing structural equation modeling (SEM), the study empirically examines how educators’ digital proficiencies shape outcomes in applied talent development. The analysis yields a robust, statistically significant positive effect of digital competence on training efficacy. Specifically, higher levels of digital competence are linked to improved student skill development, better alignment between training outcomes and labor market requirements, and enhanced overall educational performance. The measurement model exhibits robust psychometric properties: both Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability surpass established benchmarks, and fit indices confirm an acceptable to excellent model-data alignment. In doing so, the work contributes novel micro-level evidence on the centrality of instructor capabilities—particularly within the relatively underexamined landscape of vocational undergraduate education—thereby addressing a salient gap in current scholarship. It further extends existing studies on digital competence by highlighting its function as a key enabling capability that enhances the productivity and relevance of talent training. These insights carry substantial practical relevance: they highlight the imperative for institutions to place faculty digital literacy at the core of professional development initiatives, systematically embed digital tools into pedagogical practice, and strengthen curricular alignment with dynamic industry demands.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Huajun Zheng
AU  - Yuanlin Wu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/08
TI  - Digital Competence and Talent Training Effectiveness in Vocational Undergraduate Education: Evidence from a Faculty Survey in China
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 7th International Conference on Management Science and Engineering Management (ICMSEM 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 437
EP  - 452
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-758-3_42
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-758-3_42
ID  - Zheng2026
ER  -