The Factors Influencing High-Level Talent Turnover in China’s Higher Vocational Colleges

In recent years, the increasing turnover rate of high-level talents has become a significant obstacle to improving the talent competitiveness of higher vocational colleges and the quality of higher vocational education. This study aims to discover the internal motivational and external driving factors of brain drain. This study adopts a qualitative research method, selects a higher vocational institution in Shanxi Province, China, as a case study, uses purposive sampling and conducts one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 20 relevant personnel to obtain relevant information about the factors of brain drain. The research findings show that the internal motivational factors leading to the attrition of high-level talents are development needs, family and life needs, psychological factors, and moral character, while external driving factors mainly include regional gap and external competition, work environment, policies and systems, salary and benefits. The managers of higher vocational institutions can refer to these factors to develop corresponding measures to solve the problem of brain drain. This study still has certain limitations in terms of research scope and interviewee scope. Based on the experience of conducting this study, four recommendations are proposed for further research.