Research on Social Practice of College Students under the Cultivation Mode of Applied Talents

With the upgrading of industrial structure and the implementation of innovation-driven development strategy, the demand for applied talents in society is becoming more urgent. The goal of applied talent cultivation is to highlight the coordinated development of applied knowledge transformation and practical ability. As a link between theory and reality, college students' social practice is regarded as a core link in cultivating high-quality applied talents. Nevertheless, there are still problems existing in college students' social practice: the teaching system is disconnected from practical application needs, the platform resources are dispersed, and the internal motivation of students is lacking, resulting in the inability to fully transform the practical effects obtained by the students into professional competitiveness. Although some colleges have adopted models such as school-enterprise cooperation and project-based practice, they still fail to reach practical applications because they are weak in the systematic design, process management, and result transformation. At the same time, the digital age has also brought new opportunities for social practices; although models such as virtual simulation practice and inter-regional cooperation existed, they have not been developed. Based on this, this research focuses on the optimization path of social practice under the framework of applied talent cultivation, aiming to explore a feasible plan for the in-depth integration of practice-based education and social needs by reconstructing teaching logic, integrating social resources, and stimulating students' subjectivity, so as to provide theoretical support and practical references for higher education to serve regional economic transformation.