Skills contest to attract talented craftsmen

China will hold its second vocational skills competition in Tianjin, offering a stage for talented craftsmen and young masters before the next WorldSkills competition.

The three-day national competition, from Saturday to Monday, has attracted 4,045 contestants from 36 delegations across the nation.

The competition includes 109 events, among which 62 are organized for selecting competitors for WorldSkills — such as automobile technology and freight forwarding- with winners included in the national team for the world competition in Lyon, France next September.

Another 47 are national competitions including bricklaying, jewelry processing and virtual reality engineering.

"All these events are closely related to real life. Nearly 40 percent of the events are on advanced manufacturing and about 30 percent involve skills applied in strategic newly emerged industries," Wang Xiaojun, deputy director of the vocational capacity training department of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said at a news conference in Tianjin on Friday.

She said that the competition sees an increasing zest of engagement of skilled workers and vocational school students. "These 4,000-plus competitors are selected from hundreds of thousands of people through several rounds of trial matches in the past few months. We finally have 4,045 competitors and 3,270 judges joining the State-level game, who represent the highest level of skills of their events."

According to the organizing committee, young people under age 30 account for roughly 67 percent of this year's competition.

"More competitors with higher educational backgrounds actively engage in the competition. Among the 4,000-plus, 25 hold doctorate degrees, 546 master's degrees and 1,131 are undergraduates. Their involvement shows the trend that technology and working skills are integrated into development," said Wang.

Liu Xiaohong, a professor from the Guizhou Traffic Technician and Transportation College, said that she has seen improved skills, professionalism and work efficiency from competitors this year, as colleges and universities have put more focus on the competition.

She said that China first sent a delegation to the competition in 2011, learning about the spirit and rules of WorldSkills and helping the development of experts and competitors.

"Many supportive policies have also been given to skilled workers in recent years regarding their employment and job promotions, which help create a more friendly environment for skilled people. These policies and people's improved view of skilled workers have also inspired the skilled people to get actively engaged in skills-related competitions to win themselves good social status and higher incomes," she added.

In December 2020, China organized the first national vocational skills competition in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, with 2,557 competitors participating.