Coupling Coordination Between Low-Altitude Economy and Vocational Education Talent Supply, and the Moderating Effect of the Digital Economy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jse.202611402

Author(s)

Zhaohui Wu1, Yifan Qian2,3,*, Xunbao Liu3, Fengyu Su2

Affiliation(s)

1School of Digital Economics, Changzhou University of Information Technology, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China 2School of Electronic Engineering, Changzhou University of Information Technology, Changzhou, Jiangsu, China 3Suzhou Ruiyi Luke Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou, Jiangsu, China * Corresponding Author

Abstract

As a strategically emerging sector in China, the low-altitude economy confronts a structural impediment: a persistent insufficiency of qualified personnel required for its sustained expansion. Vocational institutions function as the principal conduit for cultivating unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators, low-altitude data collectors, and related technical practitioners, whereas the digital economy—through cloud-based training platforms and intelligent data systems—acts as a key enabler for modernizing these educational programs. To quantify this relationship, dual evaluation frameworks are established to assess the low-altitude economy development level and vocational education talent supply capacity, respectively. Drawing on provincial panel data from 2020 to 2024 across 30 provinces, composite indices are derived through entropy weighting, and the coupling coordination degree between the two systems is subsequently computed. A fixed-effects panel regression is then specified to examine whether digital development conditions this inter-system coordination. Three principal results emerge. First, the coupling coordination degree displays a steady upward trajectory over the observation period, yet substantial spatial disparities persist—coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Jiangsu attain the high-quality coordination stage, whereas central and western regions remain at a barely coordinated or even disordered level. Second, the digital economy is verified to exert a strengthening effect on the alignment between vocational training and low-altitude industry requirements; that is, provinces with more advanced digital infrastructure demonstrate a more pronounced talent-supply contribution. Third, this strengthening role is geographically uneven, being most pronounced in the eastern region, moderate in the central region, and relatively weak in the western region. By incorporating the talent-supply perspective into the low-altitude economy analytical paradigm, this study offers both a novel analytical lens and empirical evidence for aligning educational specialization with industrial spatial planning.

Keywords

Low-Altitude Economy; Vocational Education; Digital Economy; Statistics; Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

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