Liu, Zihao
(2025)
Comparing expectations and experiences of post-college transitions for higher vocational education and training (HVET) students in Xi’an after the covid-19 pandemic.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
China’s Higher Vocational Education and Training (HVET) sector has experienced rapid expansion, yet remains overshadowed by entrenched cultural prejudices, structural barriers such as the hukou system, and persistent labour-market biases that devalue vocational qualifications. The HVET students’ post-college transition has become more complicated and high-risk under these circumstances compared to the past. More importantly, Covid-19 pandemic deteriorated these circumstances even further. Set against this fraught backdrop, the present study offers a student-centred examination of how HVET learners in Xi’an navigate their post-college transitions, whether through immediate employment or by ‘upgrading’ into bachelor’s programmes. The central aim is to identify how these learners form their expectations, why many fall short of their initial hopes, and which core factors, both systemic and individual, they perceive as most pivotal in shaping their transitions. By highlighting the social, economic, and cultural contexts surrounding these students, this research aims to dispel deficit-based narratives and illuminate the complex web of constraints and aspirations that shape their trajectories.
Drawing on an interpretivist stance with a longitudinal qualitative methodology, the study provides data from three rounds of semi-structured interviews over 15 months with 26 HVET graduates as they progress through two differing trajectories: seeking university admission (college-to-university transition, CUT) or entering the workforce (school-to-work transition, SWT). This research employed a dual analytic strategy, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) in conjunction with Thematic Analysis, to explore the rich, longitudinal narratives of 26 HVET graduates. These participants’ stories illuminate how macro-level forces, including the hukou system, economic disadvantage, and deep-seated stigma against vocational pathways, intersect with personal beliefs, values, and goals. Two conceptual frameworks guide the inquiry: Markus and Nurius’s (1986) possible selves provides insights into how students envision their future identities, while Appadurai’s (2004) capacity to aspire highlights the sociocultural roots of their ambitions and the resource constraints they encounter.
Findings reveal that China’s hukou system and societal bias toward vocational pathways severely undermine HVET learners’ capacity to move smoothly into university education or stable employment. Despite the official promotion of ‘practical skills,’ participants routinely encountered recruitment discrimination in the labour market, and compartmentalised treatment at universities, where they remained stigmatised as ‘inferior’. Many recounted subpar curricula and limited institutional attention to occupational skills, leaving them at a disadvantage when confronting university-level coursework or jobs requiring broader competencies. Students’ family backgrounds, particularly in economically disadvantaged rural areas, limited their ability to mobilise and utilise essential resources, namely financial support, social networks, and cultural capital, which in turn exacerbated the educational and labourmarket challenges they faced. The unprecedented disruption caused by Covid-19 pandemic further amplified existing vulnerabilities. Lockdowns and shifts to online instruction eroded the practical experience so central to HVET, exposing students to a ‘skills gap’ that undercut their belief in immediate employability. While some overcame these challenges through extraordinary self-discipline or parental support, the majority faced precarious occupations or suboptimal academic pathways, revealing a stark divergence between hopeful expectations and lived realities.
This study expands existing theoretical perspectives by integrating possible selves and the capacity to aspire into a cohesive lens on post-college transitions. While prior research often isolates personal motivation or structural barriers, these frameworks jointly reveal how HVET students must navigate competing aspirations, entrenched inequalities, and day-to-day obstacles that can abruptly reconfigure their trajectories. On a practical level, the findings highlight a critical need for policy and institutional reforms. Specifically, the HVET curriculum should more effectively integrate theoretical knowledge with advanced occupational skills, while oversight mechanisms must address exploitative workplace practices and expand school-based training in soft skills. Strengthened family-centred support can also help offset socioeconomic deficits. Ultimately, sustaining students’ aspirations requires confronting structural inequities such as hukou restrictions, dispelling negative social stigma, and aligning curricula with both academic and market demands, enabling HVET students’ pathways to become genuinely promising rather than precarious.
Additionally, this research proposes a new conception of the ‘Movement Force in Transition’ (MFT), an integrative notion treating personal transition as governed by push–pull forces from past and future, measured against structural friction (e.g., exploitative internships, material deprivation) and resistance (such as cultural stigma or psychological barriers). By mapping out the interplay of these forces, MFT explains why HVET students’ initial enthusiasm can quickly falter when faced with credential inflation, segregation at universities, or minimal family support.
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