The 48th WorldSkills Competition concluded successfully in Shanghai on September 27, with the Chinese delegation securing 41 gold medals and once again topping the gold medal table. Notably, this edition introduced seven new competition categories: rail vehicle technology, drone systems, smart security technology, software testing, digital interactive media design, dental prosthetics technology, and retail.
From drones to digital interaction, from software testing to smart security, from rail vehicles to retail services, the new events span digital technology, intelligent equipment, urban operations and maintenance, and modern services. Each new category connects to a new direction in industrial development and reflects emerging changes in future demand for skilled talent.
New Events Closely Tracking Industrial Transformation Reflect New Business Landscapes
In today's rapidly developing digital industry, code and data have also become new arenas of skills competition. Lan Duancheng, a competitor in the software testing event at the 48th WorldSkills Competition, fought through rounds of elimination to ultimately claim the first-ever gold medal awarded in this category. On the competition floor, facing complex programs and massive datasets, Lan Duancheng needed to identify system defects through testing, analyze operational problems, and ensure software quality and system stability.
In recent years, the information industry has developed rapidly and penetrated into industries including manufacturing, healthcare, and education. In Lan Duancheng's view, software testing not only tests professional technical ability but also requires competitors to possess problem analysis, logical judgment, and continuous learning capabilities. As one of the new events at this edition of WorldSkills, the establishment of the software testing category precisely reflects the accelerated development of digital technology and changes in industry demand for high-quality skilled talent.
One event connects to one industry. As new technologies, new industries, and new business forms accelerate their development, the event settings of the WorldSkills Competition are also continuously adjusted in step with industrial transformation, resonating with industrial development trends.
"The setting of events follows industrial development," said a relevant official from the Department of Occupational Capacity Building of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. In recent years, global industrial structures have been undergoing transformation and upgrading, with emerging industries and new occupations constantly appearing. The WorldSkills Competition dynamically adjusts its event settings based on industrial changes, and new events serve as an important reflection of maintaining the competition's forward-looking and leading nature. The new events at this edition focus on fields including the digital economy, intelligent manufacturing, urban operations and maintenance, and livelihood services, embodying the concept that "wherever industry develops, occupational demand extends; wherever occupational demand extends, skills competition follows," promoting exchanges and learning among competitors from various countries around new technologies and new positions to enhance skill levels.
Taking rail vehicle technology as an example, in recent years, the rapid development of high-speed railways and urban rail transit has placed higher demands on highly skilled talent in areas such as vehicle operations and maintenance, inspection and repair, and commissioning. As rail transit networks continue to extend, demand for related skilled talent continues to grow, and cultivating professionals adapted to industrial development has become an urgent necessity.
Similarly, other new events also correspond to new directions in industrial development. Drone systems connect to new scenarios in the low-altitude economy, smart security technology serves smart city construction, software testing supports digital industry operations, digital interactive media design drives the development of the digital content industry, dental prosthetics technology responds to demand in the big health sector, and the retail event reflects the transformation and upgrading trend of the consumer services industry.
Behind each new event are job changes brought about by industrial transformation and adjustments in the direction of skilled talent cultivation. Xing Rong, assistant researcher at the Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, stated that the development of emerging industries is driving skilled talent cultivation to shift from a past emphasis on knowledge transmission and single-skill training toward a greater focus on comprehensive qualities, learning ability, and adaptability. As artificial intelligence gradually takes on rule-based procedural cognitive tasks, the core value of skilled talent will be more reflected in complex work that machines cannot independently complete. Facing open-ended, non-standardized, and uncertain tasks, skilled talent needs to possess capabilities in problem analysis, logical reasoning, critical thinking, innovative design, and risk management, able to understand specific contexts, make reasonable decisions, and provide professional judgment and necessary corrections to results provided by artificial intelligence systems.
Against this backdrop, the requirements of emerging industries for skilled talent have shifted from mastering established knowledge and completing prescribed operations to comprehensively applying knowledge, technology, and experience to solve practical problems. This requires skilled talent cultivation to place greater emphasis on comprehensive professional qualities, continuous learning ability, technological adaptability, and job transferability.
Keeping Pace with Industry Upgrades: Skills Growth Adapted to the Needs of the Times
Drone systems is one of the new events at this edition of WorldSkills. This event integrates knowledge from multiple fields including mechanics, electronics, and computers, focusing on assessing competitors' comprehensive abilities in drone installation, debugging, maintenance, programming, and flight mission execution. At the 48th WorldSkills Competition, Zeng Chen, an employee of Hangzhou Technician College, won the gold medal in the drone systems event. To prepare for this highest-standard global skills competition, he had been honing his skills for a long time. In his view, with the rapid development of the low-altitude economy and the continuous expansion of drone application scenarios, higher demands are being placed on the comprehensive abilities of skilled talent. Drone systems not only test operational skills but also require mastery of mechanical structures, electronic control, software programming, and other knowledge areas.
The establishment of the drone systems event precisely reflects changes in industrial demand for skilled talent. In recent years, drone applications have expanded from agricultural plant protection and environmental monitoring to disaster rescue, facility inspection, logistics delivery, and other fields, with demand for talent possessing comprehensive skills in operation, maintenance, and programming continuing to increase. A relevant official from a vocational training school in Beilun District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, stated that with the widespread application of drone technology, the number of students learning related skills continues to grow. "The addition of the drone systems event at WorldSkills also provides a new direction for skills training," the official said. The school keeps pace with industry development, continuously updates course content, integrates new technologies such as artificial intelligence into teaching, expands application scenarios, and strengthens school-enterprise cooperation to improve the alignment between talent cultivation and industrial needs.
Like the drone systems event, dental prosthetics technology is also a new event at this edition of WorldSkills, marking the first time dental digital skills have appeared on the WorldSkills stage. This event requires competitors to complete the design and production of dental prosthetics and treatment devices according to clinical needs, requiring not only mastery of traditional prosthetics techniques but also proficiency in using digital software and equipment to achieve precise and personalized restoration.
The continuous emergence of new events is also driving accelerated adjustment of skilled talent cultivation models. In recent years, human resources and social security departments have continued to promote dynamic optimization of specialties in technical colleges, guiding institutions to adjust their specialty layouts around industrial needs and cultivate skilled talent adapted to new technologies and new industries. Zhao Zhiqun, professor and doctoral supervisor at the Faculty of Education of Beijing Normal University, stated that the core of cultivating highly skilled talent is to build learning scenarios based on real professional practice for students. Through various forms such as cognitive internships and position internships, allowing students to participate in professional practice activities can not only enhance vocational skills but also help form professional norms, professional ethics, and professional values. Compared with traditional disciplinary education, highly skilled talent cultivation requires more work-based learning environments, allowing students to participate in practice in real positions, discover problems, summarize experience, and achieve integrated improvement of knowledge, skills, and professional qualities.
In this process, technical colleges are also continuously exploring new cultivation models. Nanjing Communications Technician College has established drone application technology and low-altitude technology and engineering specialties, while simultaneously laying out intelligent manufacturing directions such as industrial robots and mechatronics. Hangzhou Technician College has established a drone application technology specialty, with courses gradually expanding from fundamentals to applications, extending from drone assembly, debugging and maintenance, and simulated flight to industry applications such as aerial photography, surveying and mapping, and plant protection. The college has also established school-enterprise cooperation with multiple drone companies, covering fields including plant protection, traffic inspection, and education and training.
As the national training base for the digital interactive media design event of the 48th WorldSkills Competition, Guangzhou Light Industry Technician College aligns with WorldSkills technical standards, relies on national-level training platforms and leading enterprise resources, and has established a digital media technology application specialty, cultivating highly skilled talent closely aligned with industrial needs.
At the same time, the degree of enterprise participation in talent cultivation continues to deepen. Qingdao Technician College has cooperated with multiple enterprises including Chery Automobile, CRRC, and Haier to jointly establish order-based classes covering specialty directions such as rail transit, health care and nursing, and intelligent manufacturing. Enterprise technical personnel participate in practical training guidance, bringing talent cultivation closer to industrial needs. From changes in WorldSkills events to adjustments in school specialties, and further to deep enterprise participation, the skilled talent cultivation chain is continuously extending toward the industrial end.
Gathering Multi-Party Synergy to Co-Build a Skills Development Ecosystem
New industries develop quickly and technology updates rapidly, while talent cultivation takes time. How to shorten the distance between industrial demand and talent supply has become an important topic facing skilled talent cultivation.
"There is a certain time lag between industrial demand and skilled talent cultivation," said Xing Rong. As emerging industries develop rapidly, job connotations and capability requirements iterate quickly, some course content and teaching standards are not updated in a timely manner, and knowledge from digital technology, artificial intelligence, green technology, and emerging service industries is insufficiently integrated, leading to a disconnect between skilled talent cultivation and job requirements.
In her view, solving this problem requires further strengthening the pull of industrial demand and the guidance of skill standards. Around strategic emerging industries, advanced manufacturing, modern services, and future industries, a dynamic linkage mechanism among industrial development, occupational classification, skill standards, specialty settings, and training content should be established, truly achieving that wherever industry develops, skill standards follow, and training content expands accordingly.
Vocational skills competitions play an important role in this process. With the WorldSkills Competition as the guide and the National Vocational Skills Competition as the leader, improving the vocational skills competition system, promoting learning through competition, training through competition, evaluation through competition, and construction through competition, enables competition events to timely reflect industrial frontiers and job standards, promoting more skilled talent to enhance skills and achieve employment development through practice, and forming a good atmosphere in society of respecting labor, respecting knowledge, respecting talent, and respecting creation.
Changes in industrial demand are also driving accelerated transformation of vocational education teaching models. In Zhao Zhiqun's view, although some institutions have recognized the importance of teaching reform, lecture-based classroom teaching remains a relatively common teaching method in vocational colleges, which to some extent affects the improvement of students' practical ability and professional competence. In the future, school-enterprise cooperation should be further strengthened, the teaching reform of combining work with study should be deepened, and following the growth pattern of technical skills talent "from beginner to expert," students should be guided to enhance professional skills, professional qualities, and action capabilities by completing typical tasks in real work processes. Modern apprenticeship systems and new enterprise apprenticeship systems should be promoted, encouraging enterprises to deeply participate in the entire talent cultivation process. Through improving the coordination mechanism among education, human resources and social security, and industry departments, clarifying the responsibilities of schools, enterprises, and apprentices, and safeguarding the rights and interests of all parties; at the same time, giving play to the role of industry associations to provide support services for school-enterprise cooperation. Vocational colleges should also further reform their teaching management systems to better adapt to apprenticeship training and work-study teaching requirements.
Competition events are a bellwether of industrial development, and skilled talent is an important support for industrial upgrading. Keeping up with the "new rhythm" of industry requires not only following industrial changes but also staying in sync with industry and walking alongside positions, cultivating more high-quality skilled talent for new industries, new occupations, and new positions, and providing solid talent support for high-quality development.