Career readiness has become an important concern for higher education institutions as universities are increasingly expected to prepare students for changing labor-market demands. This study examines the effect of human capital competence on career readiness among students in China's public universities. It further investigates whether migration status, educational services, and skills services influence human capital competence, and whether organizational culture and industrial training mediate the relationship between human capital competence and career readiness. This study adopts a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. Data are collected from 385 students in public universities in Hebei Province, China, and analyzed using regression analysis and bootstrapping mediation analysis. The findings show that migration status had the strongest effect on human capital competence, and the effect was negative. Educational services and skills services had significant positive effects on human capital competence. Human capital competence significantly improved career readiness, while organizational culture and industrial training partially mediated this relationship. The findings suggest that strengthening human capital competence, providing targeted support for non-local students, and improving institutional and practical training mechanisms are important for enhancing students’ career readiness.
Abelha, M., Fernandes, S., Mesquita, D., Seabra, F., & Ferreira-Oliveira, A. T. (2020). Graduate employability and competence development in higher education: A systematic literature review using PRISMA. Sustainability, 12(15), 5900.
Al-Tit, A. A., Al-Ayed, S., Alhammadi, A., Hunitie, M., Alsarayreh, A., & Albassam, W. (2022). The impact of employee development practices on human capital and social capital: The mediating contribution of knowledge management. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 8(4), 218.
Ali, M. (2024). Unlocking opportunities: The socioeconomic impact of quality education. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 9(6), 183–186.
Apriyani, D., Krisnawati, M., Sudana, I. M., Angraeni, N. S., & Setiawati, T. D. (2023). Improving student competence through industrial internship learning. In Proceedings of the 4th Vocational Education International Conference (VEIC 2022) (pp. 46–51). Atlantis Press.
Bagdadli, S., Gianecchini, M., Andresen, M., Cotton, R., Kaše, R., Lazarova, M., Smale, A., Bosak, J., Briscoe, J. P., Chudzikowski, K., & Dello Russo, S. (2021). Human capital development practices and career success: The moderating role of country development and income inequality. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42(4), 429–447.
Becker, G. S. (1964). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis, with special reference to education. Columbia University Press.
Chen, Y., & Feng, S. (2019). The education of migrant children in China’s urban public elementary schools: Evidence from Shanghai. China Economic Review, 54, 390–402.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16(3), 297–334.
DeVellis, R. F. (2017). Scale development: Theory and applications (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., & Christian, L. M. (2014). Internet, phone, mail, and mixed-mode surveys: The tailored design method (4th ed.). Wiley.
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.
Gao, F. (2025). Home away from home?: Campus-based social capital for Hong Kong students in a Mainland university. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 46(4), 508–525.
Goulart, V. G., Liboni, L. B., & Cezarino, L. O. (2022). Balancing skills in the digital transformation era: The future of jobs and the role of higher education. Industry and Higher Education, 36(2), 118–127.
Grabowska, I., & Jastrz?bowska, A. (2021). The effects of migration on human capacities of two generations of Poles: The interplay of the individual and the social in human capital approaches. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(8), 1829–1847.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Haynes, S. N., Richard, D. C. S., & Kubany, E. S. (1995). Content validity in psychological assessment: A functional approach to concepts and methods. Psychological Assessment, 7(3), 238–247.
Hernandez-Gantes, V. M., Keighobadi, S., & Fletcher Jr, E. C. (2018). Building community bonds, bridges, and linkages to promote the career readiness of high school students in the United States. Journal of Education and Work, 31(2), 190–203.
Hughes, H. P. N., Mouratidou, M., & Donald, W. E. (2023). Exploring the effects of an industrial placement year on students’ competency development: A three-cohort, longitudinal study. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning.
Iyer, V. M., & Dave, K. (2015). Industry’s role in employability. Industrial and Commercial Training, 47(3), 151–158.
Janta, H., Jephcote, C., Williams, A. M., & Li, G. (2021). Returned migrants’ acquisition of competences: The contingencies of space and time. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(8), 1740–1757.
Jin, H. (2025). A comparative study of the academic experiences between local and non-local community college students in Hong Kong. Higher Education Evaluation and Development, 19(1), 70–86.
Karunaratne, K., & Perera, N. (2019). Students’ perception on the effectiveness of industrial internship programme. Education Quarterly Reviews, 2(4).
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall.
Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J. L., Buckley, J. A., Bridges, B. K., & Hayek, J. C. (2006). What matters to student success: A review of the literature. National Postsecondary Education Cooperative.
Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45(1), 79–122.
Li, Y., & Hu, H. (2023). Exploration and practice of the integration of industry and education in high-level research universities and local application-oriented universities in China. In Proceedings of the 2023 2nd International Conference on Educational Innovation and Multimedia Technology (pp. 769–779). Atlantis Press.
Likert, R. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology, 22(140), 5–55.
Lulle, A., Janta, H., & Emilsson, H. (2021). Introduction to the special issue: European youth migration: Human capital outcomes, skills and competences. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(8), 1725–1739.
National Association of Colleges and Employers. (2025). What is career readiness? National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2019). Research methods for business students (8th ed.). Pearson.
Schultz, T. W. (1961). Investment in human capital. The American Economic Review, 51(1), 1–17.
Semenova, V. V., Zelenyuk, A. N., & Savinov, Y. A. (2021). Human capital development: Development of professional competencies through soft skills. Revista Tempos e Espaços em Educação, 14(33), e15253.
Tierney, W. G., & Lanford, M. (2018). Organizational culture in higher education: Defining the essentials. The Journal of Higher Education, 89(6), 755–780.
Tushar, H., & Sooraksa, N. (2023). Global employability skills in the 21st century workplace. Heliyon, 9(11), e21023.
Vukasovic, M. (2023). Stakeholder politics and the European higher education area. In J. Huisman & M. C. Brown II (Eds.), The politics of higher education: International perspectives (pp. 112–129). Routledge.
Wang, W. (2024). Employment skills in tertiary work-based learning in China. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 23(1), 1–18.
Winterton, J., & Turner, J. J. (2019). Preparing H for work readiness: An overview and agenda. Education + Training, 61(5), 536–551.
Yorke, M. (2006). Employability in higher education: What it is – what it is not. The Higher Education Academy.
Wangkaixuan, C., & Majid, M. Z. A. (2026). The Effect of Human Capital Competence on Career Readiness among Students in Public Universities in China. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 16(8), 543–560.
Copyright: © 2026 The Author(s)
Published by Knowledge Words Publications (www.kwpublications.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
