General higher education mainly cultivates research-oriented, exploratory and design-oriented talents, while higher vocational education mainly cultivates technical and management-oriented talents who have both professional knowledge and advanced skills, can provide technical guidance and transform design drawings into required objects, and can conduct on-site command by using design concepts or management ideas. In other words, higher vocational education trains skilled, operational and advanced technical talents with university culture. Compared with ordinary higher education, most students trained in higher vocational education can go to work directly after graduation, and there is generally no so-called transition period or adaptation period, even if there is one, it is very short.

Different from economic development: with the development of society, higher education is more and more closely linked with social and economic development, and higher vocational education is the most closely linked part of higher education and economic development. At a certain stage of development, the growth of the number of students in higher vocational education is positively related to the change of regional gross national product. Higher vocational education aims at regional economic development and social needs, and trains senior vocational and technical personnel in related industries. Its scale, development speed and the change of industrial structure depend on the change of economic development speed and industrial structure. With the strategic adjustment of China's economic structure, the development requirements and orientation of higher vocational education must be based on the needs of social and economic development. How to tap its own intrinsic value and make it serve the society more effectively is its fundamental requirement.

General higher education focuses on theoretical teaching, although there are also experiments and internships, but its purpose is only to better learn and master theoretical knowledge, focusing on the understanding and teaching of theoretical knowledge. Higher vocational education focuses on cultivating students' practical ability, paying equal attention to theory and practice, and combining education with training all the time.