International Journal of Education

This study takes graduates from the acupuncture and tuina major at Guangzhou Health Vocational and Technical College over the past five years as the research subjects. Through a mixed research method involving 117 valid questionnaires and in-depth interviews with 12 individuals, it systematically reveals the career development ecosystem of grassroots traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) technical talents. The study finds that graduates exhibit significant "three high" characteristics: a high professional job matching rate of 72.55%, a high employment concentration rate in community health service institutions of 34.31%, and a high core skill application rate exceeding 65%. At the same time, two major development dilemmas are exposed: 63% of practitioners encounter barriers to academic promotion, and 83.33% lack support for continuing education. In response to the triple structural contradictions of practical ability gaps, lack of classical inheritance, and weak basic medicine in talent cultivation, reform paths such as establishing a tiered ability cultivation model, innovating a school-hospital collaboration mechanism, and constructing a dual channel for academic and professional development are proposed. The research findings provide empirical evidence for the supply-side reform of TCM vocational education.

Acupuncture and massage; Employment quality; Vocational education; Ability mismatch; Primary healthcare