Value Implications and Practical Paths of Internationalization at Home in Vocational Education

In response to the dynamic evolutions and unprecedented challenges in the global educational landscape, the significance of vocational education in fostering new-type skilled talents equipped with international perspectives and proficient cross-cultural competence has become increasingly pronounced and irreplaceable. Against this backdrop, internationalization at home (IaH) has emerged as a strategic and indispensable pathway to propel the innovation and high-quality development of vocational education, breaking the limitations of traditional overseas-oriented internationalization. This paper first elaborates on the core connotation of IaH in vocational education, emphasizing its fundamental goal of nurturing talents who possess both solid professional skills and a broad international outlook. It achieves this by systematically integrating a wide array of international educational resources—including international students from diverse cultural backgrounds, visiting scholars and experts from renowned overseas institutions, high-quality international curriculum modules, and collaborative projects with foreign vocational education providers—thereby reshaping the core school-running philosophy, organizational structure, and talent cultivation paradigms of vocational colleges to meet the demands of globalized labor markets. Furthermore, the paper conducts an in-depth and systematic analysis of the basic characteristics of IaH from four critical dimensions. Rooted in vocational orientation, it prioritizes aligning internationalized talent training with the actual needs of local industries and global professional standards. It emphasizes local adaptation by integrating international elements with local economic, social, and cultural characteristics to avoid mechanical copying of foreign models. It facilitates cultural integration through various cross-cultural exchange activities, fostering mutual understanding and respect among domestic and international students. It also adheres to continuous optimization, requiring vocational colleges to dynamically adjust strategies based on teaching feedback, industry demands, and international educational trends. Finally, the paper proposes a comprehensive and operable implementation path for IaH in vocational education, which includes strengthening policy guidance and implementation support via targeted policies and funding investment, constructing an internationalized curriculum system by introducing advanced courses and localizing teaching materials, deepening the integration and utilization of international resources through long-term international cooperation, innovating talent training models such as joint training and mixed teaching, improving the convergent management system for international students, and establishing a full-process quality assurance mechanism to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of IaH. 为顺应全球教育环境的动态变化，提升职业教育培养具备国际视野与跨文化能力的新型技能人才的重要性日益凸显。在此背景下，在地国际化成为推动职业教育发展与变革的重要路径。本文首先阐释职业教育在地国际化的内涵，强调其以培养兼具专业技能与国际视野的人才为目标，通过整合留学生、跨国学者、国际课程资源、国际合作项目等多元国际教育资源，重构职业院校的办学形态与人才培养模式。进而，本文从职业导向、本土适应、文化融合与持续优化四个维度系统剖析在地国际化的基本特征，指出其不仅服务于技能型人才的培养，还注重国际化元素与本地经济社会文化环境的有机结合，推动跨文化理解与融合。本文进一步提出职业教育在地国际化的系统实施路径，包括强化政策引导与实施支持、构建国际化课程体系、深化国际资源整合与利用、创新国际化人才培养模式、完善留学生趋同化管理体系以及构建全过程质量保障机制。