Contextualizing global competence in Chinese higher vocational education: a vocational action framework

Existing frameworks of global competence have been developed primarily in the contexts of school education and general higher education, offering limited explanations of how global competence should be contextualized in vocational education in relation to occupational tasks and work contexts, or how different competence resources are translated into vocational action. To clarify the conceptual meaning, boundaries, and structural relationships of global competence in Chinese higher vocational education (HVE), this conceptual study combines an integrative conceptual review with comparative framework analysis. Following a process of deconstruction, dual mapping, and reconstruction, representative global competence frameworks are examined through functional differentiation and vocational-context mapping and subsequently reinterpreted through the logic of vocational action. The analysis first distinguishes competence resources from processes of integration and enactment, observable manifestations of competence, developmental conditions, and external evidence. It then proposes a three-dimensional framework comprising a Knowledge Base, Applied Competence, and Values and Dispositions, encompassing nine core elements. Within the framework, the globalized vocational context specifies the content and performance requirements of competence; globalized vocational tasks serve as the organizing center for the selection and mobilization of competence resources; and Vocational Action Integration explains how these resources are coordinated in task performance, while the resulting effective, appropriate, and responsible vocational action provides their observable manifestation and informs further development through feedback and reflective learning. The framework conceptualizes vocationality not as an additional dimension of global competence, but as the contextual specification of competence resources through vocational tasks. It thereby advances understanding of how global competence can be contextualized and integrated within vocational education and provides a conceptual basis for curriculum design, competence assessment, and subsequent empirical validation.