“学以致用”是教育的目的,这也是教育的共性,但高职院校和普通高校有根本区别,其区别之一就在于高职院校着重于培养学生的职业能力而不是学术研究能力。高职院校培养的学生的“用”可以有两种:就业(为他人所用)和创业(自己用自己)。本文试图从教育的“用”的角度,针对高职院校的特点,从就业和创业这两个“用”的途径来探索高职院校人才培养的模式。 “Learning to apply ” is the purpose of education, which is also the commonalities of education, but there is a fundamental difference between higher vocational colleges and ordinary colleges and universities, one of the differences lies in that vocational colleges focus on cultivating students’ professional ability rather than academic Research capacity. There are two kinds of “use” for students cultivated in higher vocational colleges: employment (for others) and entrepreneurship (for themselves). This paper attempts to probe into the mode of personnel training in higher vocational colleges from the perspective of employment and entrepreneurship in the light of education “use ” and the characteristics of higher vocational colleges.