Symbiotic Governance in the Silver Economy: Integrating Vocational Education and Geriatric Learning in a Symbiotic Education Initiative in Guangzhou

Abstract

China’s rapid population aging has increased demand for high-quality eldercare and exposed weaknesses in education and training. Vocational colleges that prepare the care workforce and universities for the aged that promote active aging have developed on separate tracks, creating a split system in which youth programs stress technical skills and elder programs focus on leisure. This article analyzes an integrated experiment in Guangzhou, the Symbiotic Education for Aging Initiative, and proposes symbiotic governance to reconnect these subsystems. Drawing on Structural Functionalism, Situated Learning Theory, the Intergroup Contact Hypothesis, and Activity Theory, the study uses an embedded single-case design, combining policy and program documents with institutional data on certification, employment, older adults’ participation, and employer feedback. It first identifies three main problems in the current system (curriculum split, scenario isolation, faculty gaps), then reconstructs the initiative as an ecosystem of institutional permeability, youth–silver co-learning, and spatial–digital extension, and finally presents indicative improvements in student outcomes, older adults’ agency, and industry alignment. Conceptually, the article advances the ideas of symbiotic education, institutionalized empathy, and a possible third demographic dividend, where intergenerational learning turns older adults’ time and experience into renewed human and social capital.