Bridging Moral Education and Technical Training in Digitally Managed Vocational Internships
Weiqi Liu
Guangdong Polytechnic of Water Resources and Electric Engineering, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Bin Zou *
Guangdong Teachers College of Foreign Languages and Arts, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Xuxin Huang
Guangdong Teachers College of Foreign Languages and Arts, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Tingting Lv
Wenshang County Nanwang Town No. 1 Middle School, Jining, Shandong, China.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aims: This study aims to examine how high-intensity, digitally managed vocational internships can integrate technical skill development with moral education. Despite policy mandates advocating the integration of moral education and technical training, effective pedagogical mechanisms for mediating value tensions between schools and digitally governed enterprises during internships remain underdeveloped. Specifically, it investigates how the Two-Way Empowerment model operates as a mediating mechanism to bridge school-based educational values and enterprise logic in digitally managed internship contexts.
Study Design: Instrumental qualitative case study with a longitudinal, interpretivist orientation.
Place and Duration of Study: Alibaba Employment Internship Base in partnership with a Chinese vocational institution, over a 12-month internship cycle (2025 cohort).
Methodology: Thirty final-year interns from Business English and CBEC programs participated. Data were collected through weekly STAR-P reflective logs, three-wave semi-structured interviews, and non-participant observations at the internship site. Analysis integrated narrative inquiry and thematic analysis, with triangulation across data sources to trace shifts in meaning-making, action-value integration, and expressions of professional agency over time.
Results: Interns initially reported pronounced alienation and moral-technical conflict under algorithmic monitoring, throughput targets, and strict error-control practices. Following implementation of the Dual-Tutor System and STAR-P reflection, participants increasingly reframed critical incidents through mentor-supported interpretation and demonstrated progressively stronger coherence between technical actions and ethical, societal, and policy-relevant reasoning, as evidenced by longitudinal improvements in narrative integration across reflective logs.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that culturally responsive dual-mentor mediation combined with STAR-P narrative scaffolding can help convert digitally structured internship pressures into structured opportunities for technical learning and moral-professional formation. The Two-Way Empowerment model offers a practicable approach for embedding moral education within vocational training processes.
Keywords: Vocational education, internship, culturally responsive teaching, professional agency, narrative reflection