China’s Higher Vocational Education and Training (HVET) graduates’ soft-skill gap: individual aspirations and structural constraints

In an era of rapid technological advancement and increasingly complex workplace demands, soft skills, including communication, teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving, have become vital components of educational and career success worldwide. Similarly to vocational education systems globally, China's Higher Vocational Education and Training (HVET) continues to grapple with persistent soft-skill deficits among graduates, significantly hindering their transitions into university bridging programmes or the labour market. This study presents findings from a robust, 15-month longitudinal qualitative study conducted in Xi'an, involving semi-structured interviews with 26 HVET graduates from five institutions across diverse disciplinary backgrounds. This study introduces an innovative conceptual framework that integrates Labelling Theory, Bourdieu's notions of capital and habitus, and Appadurai's 'capacity to aspire', which collectively shed light on how structural stigma, resource constraints, and individual ambitions intersect to shape graduates' soft-skill outcomes. Findings reveal that societal stigma and negative labelling frequently marginalise HVET graduates, limiting their exposure to interactive and leadership-oriented opportunities crucial for refining soft skills. Despite graduates' robust aspirations to overcome vocational labels and actively pursue soft-skill growth, structural constraints, including institutional segregation, limited economic, cultural, and social capital, and internalised self-doubt, consistently undermine their development of soft skills.