Constraints, mechanisms, and strategies for industry-education integration in vocational education: An empirical study

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0339158 December 18, 2025 2 / 18 institutions and enterprises. This study holds significant theoretical and practical value for advancing high-quality vocational education. 1. Introduction With the rapid development of globalization and technology, industrial structure and economic forms are undergoing profound changes [1,2]. Traditional education models can no longer meet the demand for highly skilled talent in modern society, especially against the backdrop of economic transformation and upgrading, making vocational education increasingly important [3,4]. In China, IEI has been elevated to a national strategic height: it is explicitly positioned as a core measure in the “National Vocational Education Reform Implementation Plan” (2019) to address the mismatch between talent supply and industrial demand, and further emphasized in the “14th Five-Year Plan for Vocational Education Development” (2021–2025) as a key path- way to build a skills-based society and support high-quality economic development. Against this macro backdrop, deepening IEI has become not only a requirement for vocational education reform but also a critical support for China’s industrial upgrad- ing and sustainable economic growth. As an important avenue for cultivating skilled technical talent, vocational education plays a crucial role in supporting social and economic development [5,6]. Industry-education integration (IEI), as a key strategic measure to promote vocational education, refers to the deep cooperation between

education and industry, aiming to align educational content closely with industry needs to enhance educational quality and ensure precise talent development [7]. Currently, IEI has become a comprehensive institutional arrangement for vocational education reform and talent resource development. However, since IEI is a complex system project involving multiple stakeholders (such as the government, universities, and enterprises), its development faces numerous challenges [8]. These include insufficient policy support, an unreasonable management system, underdeveloped IEI platforms, imperfect resource allocation mechanisms, and low levels of talent sharing between universities and enterprises [9–11]. Under these constraints, the role of the government and social organizations in the integration process of vocational education is limited, and the channels for university-enterprise collaboration are not smooth enough. Furthermore, the conflict between the public welfare nature of universities and the profit-oriented demands of enterprises often leads to disputes over property rights, profit distribution, and responsibility allocation, which severely hinders the effective implementation of voca- tional education and IEI [12–14]. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the reasons restricting the development of vocational education and IEI at the current stage and propose targeted and effective countermeasures to promote the high-quality develop- ment of IEI in vocational education. Current research on IEI in vocational education has garnered significant academic

attention. A systematic review of existing studies reveals that scholarly focus has primarily centered on integration models, evaluation systems, talent cultivation, and yb24026]; the Foundation for University- Industry Collaborative Education Program, PRC [grant number 2023122865621]; the Shenzhen Polytechnic University Fund [grant number 7023310184]; the Research Projects of Department of Education of Guangdong Province [grant number 2023WCXTD037]; and the Guangdong Provincial Higher Vocational Education Teaching Reform Research and Practice Project [grant number 2023JG355]). Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.