Article Gold Open Access 2025

Big five personality traits and employability: The mediating role of internship attitudes among chinese vocational students

HS
Hu, Sixiao
 JM
Jabor, Mohd Khata
 FH
Fang, Hongbin
 SD
Sun, Dapeng
 ZY
Zheng, Yiqing
 WY
Wu, Yunzhuo
 ZY
Zhao, Yuefan
 ZY
Zhao, Yuanyuan
 LN
Li, Ninglin
 ZX
Zhao, Xiaohong
PLOS ONE
Journal · Vol. 20 · Issue 8 August · Art. e0329103
Abstract

This study investigates the impact of the Big Five personality traits on the employability of vocational education students, with a focus on the mediating role of internship attitudes. Data were collected from 550 students enrolled in 11 vocational colleges in Hebei Province, China, using a structured questionnaire. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the relationships among personality traits, internship attitudes, and employability. The findings reveal that personality traits significantly influence internship attitudes, which in turn affect employability. These results provide novel theoretical insights into the psychological mechanisms underlying internship persistence and practical recommendations for optimizing vocational education and enhancing school-enterprise collaboration to better meet students’ employability and career readiness needs. © 2025 Hu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Index Keywords

Employment adult China female human male medical education psychology questionnaire Humans Internship and Residency Surveys and Questionnaires Article young adult Students Vocational education student employability structural equation modeling controlled study vocation career school attitude open access publishing East Asian Chinese people East Asian People structured questionnaire personality
Author Affiliations
Department of Information Engineering, Hebei Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Technology, Xingtai, Hebei, China, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Department of Information Engineering, Hebei Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Technology, Xingtai, Hebei, China
Department of Student Affairs Management, Hebei Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Technology, Xingtai, Hebei, China
School of Marxism, Hebei Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Technology, Xingtai, Hebei, China
Mechnical and Eletrical Engineering Institute, Xingtai University, Xingtai, Hebei, China
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hebei Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Technology, Xingtai, Hebei, China
Department of Materials and Building Engineering, Hebei Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Technology, Xingtai, Hebei, China
Faculty of Management, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan
Funding & Acknowledgements
No funding information
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