Developing an Employment Quality Evaluation Indicator System for Higher Education Institutions in Guangzhou: A New Quality Productive Forces Perspective

The development of new quality productive forces is transforming industrial technologies, job competency requirements, and forms of work organization. These changes require the evaluation of employment quality in higher education to shift from quantitative reporting to quality diagnosis, from an exclusive focus on initial employment to sustainable career development, and from institutional self-evaluation to multi-stakeholder collaboration. Grounded in the role of higher education institutions in Guangzhou in serving regional development, this study draws on outcome-based education and integrates triple helix theory, stakeholder theory, and synergy theory. Using literature analysis and theoretical deduction, it develops a four-dimensional evaluation framework comprising organizational coordination and institutional support, educational processes and competency gains, employment outcomes and job quality, and sustainable career development and regional contribution. Innovation, green development, integration, and shared development are incorporated throughout the talent cultivation and employment processes. The resulting indicator system comprises four first-level dimensions, fourteen second-level indicators, and corresponding third-level observable measures. The study further proposes multi-wave follow-up surveys, combined weighting, separate reporting of threshold indicators, and category-based comparisons, with evaluation results informing program adjustment, curriculum reform, career services, and collaboration among government, universities, industries, and enterprises. The proposed framework provides a reference for monitoring employment quality and improving talent cultivation in Guangzhou’s higher education institutions, as well as for future empirical research.