Exploring the Pathways to Effective Faculty Development in Higher Vocational Colleges Under the Background of Digital-Intelligent Empowerment

This study, based on correlation and structural equation modeling (SEM) tests, identifies information communication, employee performance expectation, and EAP (Employee Assistance Program) as three major positive driving factors that promote the continuous participation intention of teachers in higher vocational colleges during digital-intelligent transformation. Among them, information communication shows the strongest correlation with participation intention (r = 0.786), while the structural path reveals that EAP exerts the greatest direct impact on participation intention (β = 0.682, p < 0.001). Performance expectation and information communication also indirectly enhance participation by improving teachers’ outcome expectancy. At the same time, teachers’ stress level significantly inhibits participation (r = −0.437; β = −0.195, p < 0.001), suggesting that while motivating engagement, it is essential to prevent excessive workload and psychological exhaustion. A noteworthy model detail is that, although EAP is theoretically expected to alleviate stress, a positive relationship between EAP and stress is observed in the model (β = 0.195, p < 0.001). This may reflect increased stress recognition and reporting after EAP intervention, or a short-term mismatch between service delivery and actual needs—issues that require further clarification through longitudinal and qualitative studies. Based on the above findings, it is recommended that higher vocational institutions adopt a four-step parallel strategy of “Communication–Expectation–Support–Decompression” in faculty development: (1) institutionalize information communication and goal transparency to make performance expectations clear and attainable; (2) optimize and professionalize EAP services to cover both skill training and psychological support, with regular evaluation of their effectiveness; (3) enhance teachers’ digital competence and performance confidence through tiered training and on-demand technical assistance; and (4) establish buffers in work design and evaluation pacing to proactively manage stress and build psychological safety. Meanwhile, future research is encouraged to employ longitudinal tracking and mixed-method approaches to further examine the dynamic impacts of EAP and its moderating effects under different contexts, in order to support more precise policy design and organizational practice.