Career Support Navigation, Learning, and Subsequent Task Confidence Among Ethnic Minority University Students in Hubei, China

Evaluating inclusive career support requires evidence about how students navigate and use educational opportunities. We examined whether baseline support navigation was associated with subsequent task confidence, alongside activity content and support needs, among participating ethnic minority university students in Hubei, China. A cross-sectional survey (N=520) provided initial associations; a separately recruited two-wave cohort contained 289 matched participants. In the focal analysis (n=275), perceived navigation was positively associated with follow-up self-reported task confidence after baseline adjustment (b=0.113, 95% CI [0.026, 0.200]), adding a small amount of explained variance (ΔR2=0.0125). Statistical support for this association assumes participant independence. The baseline perceived learning-content estimate was positive in the applicable-activity subgroup (n=181; b=0.163, 95% CI [0.026, 0.300]) but did not meet the 5% false-discovery-rate criterion (q=0.052). In the matched cohort, support was needed but unused by 49.1% in the six weeks before baseline and 37.7% at follow-up under different recall periods; time conflicts and unclear entry points were prominent reasons. The contribution to social sustainability is a differentiated student-side assessment of career-support usability that connects inclusive educational opportunity with specific experiences of career support. Non-probability recruitment, study-specific measures, and sensitivity to baseline measurement error qualify these exploratory observational findings.