Background: In Chinese higher vocational colleges, students often underperform academically and experience burnout from studying. Developing learning self-efficacy may directly and indirectly address these challenges, and differences in learning self-efficacy between male and female students may have varying effects on their burnout. Aims: We examined the mediating relationships between learning self-efficacy, learned helplessness and learning burnout among Chinese higher vocational college students, as well as the gender-related differences in these relationships. Sample: An online survey collected 1045 valid responses. The sample comprised 513 male students and 532 female students, with an age range of 18-21 years. Methods: A measurement model and multiple structural models for learning self-efficacy, learned helplessness and learning burnout were established through structural equation modelling to evaluate measurement validity and identify the mediating effects among these variables. Results: The findings revealed that learned helplessness partially mediated the relationship between learning self-efficacy and learning burnout among higher vocational college students. Learning self-efficacy directly influenced learning burnout in male higher vocational college students, whereas learned helplessness partially mediated the relationship between learning self-efficacy and learning burnout in female higher vocational college students. Conclusions: The findings indicate that fostering learning self-efficacy can help mitigate the impact of learned helplessness on learning burnout in female students. However, this protective effect was not observed in male students. Teachers in Chinese higher vocational colleges should implement targeted strategies, such as promoting attainable goal-setting techniques, to prevent learned helplessness from contributing to learning burnout in male students.