Driven by the growth of new quality productive forces, the five pillar industries in City S are experiencing a widening structural gap between the supply of skilled workers and actual industry demand. Drawing on a survey of 26 firms from these industries and seven local higher vocational colleges, our analysis shows that skill requirements are shifting rapidly—toward digital capabilities, green expertise, and hybrid job profiles. Vocational colleges, however, are struggling to keep pace: program structures are often lopsided, training standards lag behind technological change, and graduate competence does not consistently match what the market now expects. To address these mismatches, this paper outlines a tripartite supply–demand coordination mechanism that brings together policy direction, market forces, and industry–education partnerships. On a practical level, this calls for using policy levers to guide more coherent top-level design, allowing market signals to drive resource allocation, and deepening school–enterprise cooperation to build stronger linkages between training and employment. These insights offer both theoretical value and practical support for easing talent bottlenecks and facilitating industrial upgrading.