Exploring the association between career planning and learning engagement: Evidence from vocational and applied undergraduates in China

Career planning may be relevant not only to students' future career development but also to their current engagement in university learning. Using cross-sectional questionnaire data from 2100 students at one university in Shandong Province, China, this study examined the associations between career planning and learning engagement using multiple linear regression and a parallel intermediary-variable model with bootstrap estimation of indirect associations. Higher career-planning scores were positively associated with overall learning engagement and with cognitive, behavioral, and practical engagement. Among the three career-planning dimensions, planning execution showed the largest estimated coefficient for overall learning engagement. Professional identity and academic self-efficacy accounted for significant statistical indirect associations between career planning and learning engagement, and the estimated indirect association through academic self-efficacy was numerically larger. The interaction between career planning and undergraduate type was not statistically significant, providing no evidence of moderation in this sample. These findings extend research on career development by linking students' career-planning activities with their current learning engagement in vocational and applied undergraduate education. They also identify structured career-planning modules, goal-monitoring activities, individualized feedback, mentoring, and support for academic confidence as potential approaches warranting future evaluation in student-support programs. The cross-sectional, single-institution design precludes causal conclusions and limits generalization beyond the study context.