The Impact of Career Competence Orientation and Lifelong Learning Orientation on the Quality of Rural Return Employment among College Graduates

Under the backdrop of the rural revitalisation strategy, enhancing the quality of rural return employment among college graduates has become increasingly critical. Grounded in human capital theory and social support theory, this study investigates the influence of career competence orientation and lifelong learning orientation on the quality of rural return employment, with particular attention to the mediating roles of household economic capital and teacher support. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 397 university graduates and analysed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach. The findings indicate that: (1) Career competence orientation and lifelong learning orientation positively affect the quality of rural return employment both directly and indirectly, mediated by household economic capital and teacher support. (2) Household economic capital serves as a vital source of material security and risk mitigation, whereas teacher support provides essential informational resources, skill development opportunities and signalling advantages, together forming a core psychology-resource-outcome transmission pathway. (3) These two mediating mechanisms reflect a dual assurance framework for improving employment quality, where the household economic capital path emphasises financial stability, and the teacher support path highlights the capacity-building function of the education system. This study contributes a systematic analytical framework for understanding the determinants of employment quality among returning graduates, offering valuable theoretical insights and practical implications for fostering talent circulation and advancing rural revitalisation.