1. Population status: The age structure, gender structure, educational background structure, skill level structure and birth rate of the population have always been very important factors to be considered in the development planning of vocational education, which has a great influence on the scale development of vocational education. For example, there is a shortage of skilled workers in China at present, so the training of skilled workers may become a very important growth point in the development of vocational education in China. The birth rate is also a very important factor in the fluctuation of the scale of vocational education.

2. Social stratification: The stratification of a society is too obvious, the gap between different social classes is too large, and the vertical flow of society is very difficult, which may make members of society have a strong desire to change their original social status through education, prompting them to choose more general education instead of vocational education, thus bringing difficulties to the development of vocational education.

Political factor

Degree of political democratization: countries that attach great importance to democracy must also attach great importance to educational democracy, oppose the separation of vocational education from general education, and advocate the implementation of comprehensive high schools. In terms of curriculum, it emphasizes the integration of vocational education curriculum and general education, and the establishment of comprehensive high schools in the United States and Britain is closely related to its prominent emphasis on democracy. There is no doubt that the war destroyed vocational education, but it may have an unexpected and great impetus to the development of vocational education after the war. For example, the large-scale development of community colleges in the United States after the end of World War II largely benefited from the Veterans Employment Act.

economic factor

1.GDP growth: Generally speaking, GDP growth will bring more employment opportunities, thus promoting the expansion of vocational education. Of course, the effect also depends on other factors. In addition, with the increase of employment opportunities, the society is in a state of low unemployment rate, which may make employers actively participate in vocational education in order to compete for workers, bring about changes in vocational education models, and further affect vocational education courses. For example, on-the-job training in Japan and dual system in Germany developed rapidly after World War II. This was closely related to their low unemployment rate.

2. Level of economic development: According to the degree of economic modernization, the level of economic development can be divided into four stages from low to high: traditional agricultural economy; A modernizing but still poor economy; A rich but still modernizing economy; Rich and modern economy. Judging from the economic situation of all countries in the world, no country has entered the fourth stage. Developed countries such as the United States, Japan and Germany are basically in the third stage, while developing countries such as China are in the second stage. The gap between countries at different stages of economic development is not only the difference in GDP, but more importantly, there may be essential differences in their entire social form. Countries in the process of modernization attach great importance to economic development, so they may attach great importance to vocational education, leading to the expansion of its vocational education scale, and its courses are often utilitarian. Vocational education courses in rich countries may give more consideration to its role in human development and social function, such as its role in eliminating social injustice.

3. Economic development mode: At present, there are two main economic development modes in the world: neo-fordism (represented by the United States and Britain) and post-Fordism (represented by Germany, Japan and Singapore). Neo-fordism advocates that the economic competitiveness of enterprises can be enhanced by reducing the power of the state, society and trade unions to intervene in the economy, establishing a more flexible market and reducing wages and tax expenditures. They highly value competitive individualism. Post-Fordism opposes neo-fordism's strategy of establishing a highly flexible market to develop the economy by reducing labor remuneration and attacking the labor protection law, and advocates providing good working conditions and high wages for all workers through the cooperation of the government, employers and trade unions, encouraging workers to participate in enterprise management, and establishing high trust between employers and employees, so as to improve the quality of products and services, create a "magic economy with high skills and high wages" and enhance the economic competitiveness of enterprises. Of course, in addition to this division, China also has the division of planned economy and market economy. Different economic development models will have an impact on vocational education models. For example, vocational education in neo-fordism countries usually adopts the free market model, while vocational education in post-Fordism countries usually adopts the national social model.

4. Rationalization degree of the market: that is, the degree of market chaos. One consequence of market chaos is that the market rewards not the quality of products as the basis of market economy, but other factors such as counterfeiting, wage deduction, advertising effect and so on. Market participants don't earn profits by improving product quality, but cheat customers through fraud, or reduce costs and gain profits by deducting or even defaulting on workers' wages, or cheat customers through untrue advertisements. The alienated market economy not only damages the market economy itself, but also has a very adverse impact on the development of vocational education. Only when market players are committed to improving product quality will they put forward requirements for the development of vocational education and actively participate in vocational education, thus promoting the expansion of vocational education scale and the transformation of its model. In the market economy that ignores product quality, vocational education has no basis for development.

5. Industrial structure: The establishment of the modern vocational education system, the large-scale expansion of its scale and the opening of vocational education courses in the modern sense have largely benefited from the industrial revolution. It is the industrial revolution that makes the industrial structure change from agriculture to industry and makes the development of modern vocational education possible. When the industrial structure changes from industry-oriented to service-oriented, vocational education will inevitably face new comprehensive changes. Although this change has already begun, we actually don't know much about its future development.

6. Enterprise structure: Enterprise structure is a concept with rich connotations, and only the scale structure of enterprises is discussed here for the time being. There is no doubt that the vocational education mode of a country dominated by large enterprises will be very different from that of a country dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises. Large enterprises, because of their strong economic strength, emphasize the individuality of corporate culture, and are more inclined to implement internal training, while small and medium-sized enterprises, because of their lack of sufficient economic strength and outstanding personality, are more inclined to the social and public training mode of labor force.

Enterprise structure will have an impact on vocational education curriculum. In countries or regions dominated by large enterprises, because enterprises tend to cultivate their own labor force, the curriculum of school vocational education tends to be general rather than post-related; In countries or regions dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, because enterprises rely heavily on public training of labor force, their courses tend to be work-related.

7. Labor market model: The global labor market can be roughly divided into two categories: internal labor market and external labor market. The external labor market encourages employees to move freely between employers, but restricts unqualified employees from entering the market. The internal labor market is a market that encourages employees to move vertically along the promotion ladder within the company. The evidence of liquidity is its performance to the company. In this market, the possibility of directly entering a position higher than the initial position from the outside is almost zero. The type of labor market will directly affect a country's vocational education model and even curriculum. Generally speaking, in countries that implement external labor market, the vocational education mode is mainly schools; The mode of vocational education in countries with internal labor market depends on other factors.

8. Labor unemployment, etc. The unemployment situation in a country will greatly affect the scale of its vocational education. If the vocational employment rate corresponding to academic education is high, but the vocational employment rate corresponding to vocational education is low, people are more inclined to receive academic education, and the demand for vocational education naturally decreases. On the other hand, if the employment situation corresponding to academic education is poor and the employment situation corresponding to vocational education is good, many people will choose vocational education, thus increasing people's demand for vocational education. This is an important reason for the rapid development of vocational education in China in the early 1990s. Because the employment of vocational school students was even better than that of college students in the early 1990s, and the length of vocational education was short, many students were willing to choose vocational education at that time. In addition, unemployment will also affect vocational education models, such as on-the-job training in Japan and dual system in Germany.

Cultural factor

Mainly refers to the unique cultural values of a society. This is a particularly prominent factor in China, which is easier to understand.

Educational factors

1. Educational concept: Educational activities are carried out by educators, so their educational concept will inevitably have a direct impact on the scale, mode and course selection of vocational education. When an educational concept becomes the mainstream concept of a society, it can be regarded as a macro factor existing outside the individual. For example, the development of community colleges in the United States is directly related to the idea that professionalization should also be one of the contents of higher education in the United States. The development of American comprehensive high schools is directly related to its emphasis on educational democracy and its opposition to the dual-track system in education.

2. Development of education system: Vocational education is a part of the whole education system, so the development of other parts of the education system will inevitably affect the development of vocational education, and sometimes this role is even very huge. For example, the current decline in the scale of vocational education in China is closely related to the general high fever caused by the expansion of colleges and universities. The shrinkage of vocational education in Japanese schools in 1970s was also closely related to the rapid development of Japanese higher education at that time. However, after Japan's higher education developed rapidly again in the 1990s, there was even a discussion about whether secondary education needed vocational education. The development of the education system may also affect the vocational education model and even the curriculum. Because when the development of vocational education encounters difficulties, vocational schools may seek new vocational education models. For example, the emergence of comprehensive high schools in China is closely related to the current predicament of vocational education. Many vocational schools in China are actively seeking school-enterprise cooperation, which is also closely related to this.

3. The reality of vocational education itself: The facilities, teaching quality, majors and courses of vocational education itself are also important factors affecting the development of vocational education. For example, the difficulties in running vocational education in China are closely related to the poor quality of vocational education itself.