Research on Employment Support Paths for Special Students in Border Areas Under the Coordination of Digital Empowerment and Social Work

Abstract

With digital technologies continuously penetrating grassroots public services in borderland regions, they have become a critical instrument to facilitate high-quality employment for vulnerable special groups. The Chinese government has issued the Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting the Employment of Persons with Disabilities (2025–2027), which tilts employment support resources toward border ethnic regions and improves a full-cycle employment service system for disabled graduates[1]. Restricted by physical impairments, geographical isolation and the scarcity of local employment resources, special students in border areas commonly suffer from confusion about career development, inferiority complex and timidity in job hunting, as well as short-sighted career concepts, confronting numerous psychological predicaments and practical employment barriers. Rooted in the philosophy of "helping people to help themselves", social work boasts professional strengths including psychological counseling, resource connection and individual case follow-up, which can make up for the deficiency of traditional employment support that only emphasizes policies while ignoring psychological demands. Combined with the strengths of digital empowerment in breaking geographical restrictions and integrating scattered employment resources, systematic solutions can be formed to resolve the employment dilemmas of special students in borderlands. Supported by the social work theory of "person-in-situation", this paper analyzes employment difficulties and their underlying causes from three dimensions: individual, campus and society. Integrating three major practical social work methods with digital tools, it proposes hierarchical and implementable support strategies. This research aims to improve the employment status of this group and advance the balanced development of special education as well as ethnic unity and progress in border areas.