A Study on the Factor Structure of Digital Skills of Manufacturing Employees in Foshan—Based on Exploratory Factor Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/e81hr757Keywords:
Digital Literacy, Manufacturing Employees, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Skill Structure.Abstract
In the context of digital transformation in the manufacturing sector, elucidating the internal structure of employees' digital skills is essential for talent development. Drawing on general ability theory, this study utilized 2025 survey data from industrial workers in Guangzhou, selecting a sample of 105 manufacturing workers from Foshan. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the underlying structure of six skills: equipment manual comprehension, equipment operation, programming problem solving, fault handling, data observation, and data analysis. Initially, the KMO test (0.772) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity (p<0.001) confirmed the suitability of the data for factor analysis. The findings revealed that all six skills could be attributed to a single underlying factor, termed “digital literacy,” which accounted for 69.1% of the total variance. Among these, “data observation” (loading 0.851) and “data analysis” (loading 0.846) emerged as the most critical dimensions constituting this core competency. This study substantiates the existence of a unified underlying structure for digital skills and provides empirical evidence for the development of a comprehensive training and assessment system centered on “digital literacy.” This study offers practical guidance for optimizing corporate human resource management and enhancing the efficiency of digital transformation.
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