WorldSkills

WorldSkills is an international charity that organises world and national championships for vocational skills and is held every two years in different parts of the world, and also hosts conferences about vocational skills. WorldSkills describes itself as the global hub for skills.
The aims of the competitions include demonstrating the advantages of learning a vocational skill, and encouraging 'parity of esteem' between vocational and academic qualifications.
The city of Kazan, Russia, hosted the 45th WorldSkills Competition in 2019. At the previous event, WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017, there were competitions in 51 skills areas with roughly 1,300 young people taking part.
WorldSkills International, formerly known as the International Vocational Training Organization (IVTO), was founded in the 1940s with the goal of creating new employment opportunities for young people in some of the economies that were devastated by the Second World War. It operates in 85 countries and regions.
WorldSkills rose out of the ruins of the Second World War, which devastated the economies of Europe and created a huge skills shortage that threatened a new economic depression. Some took this challenge as an opportunity to introduce young people to the world of vocational skills. Francisco Albert Vidal was charged with creating a skills contest for the youth of Spain and Portugal. Madrid 1950 was a modest event by today’s standards but an international movement was born. The competition grew rapidly. Young participants from Germany, Great Britain, France, Morocco, and Switzerland responded to the invitation, with two contestants making an unannounced journey to Spain at their own cost. The competition ventured overseas for the first time, relocating to Brussels, Belgium. This marked the beginning of the global expansion of the WorldSkills movement. By the late 1960s, competitions had been hosted in Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The next significant milestone came with Tokyo hosting the event in 1970. By the end of the 1980s, Atlanta in the USA, Sydney in Australia, Seoul in Korea, and Chinese Taipei had all welcomed what was becoming the world’s greatest international vocational skills event.
Governed by an international Board of Directors and administered by the WorldSkills Secretariat, WSI's mission is "To raise the profile and recognition of skilled people, and show how important skills are in achieving economic growth and personal success".
Among its main objectives are:
Medals are awarded during the competition: gold, silver and bronze. Medallions for Excellence are also awarded to those Competitors who achieve above-average scores in their contest areas.
The WorldSkills Competition is currently held every two years.
By country
The 46th WorldSkills event will be held in Shanghai, as confirmed by the WorldSkills General Assembly in October 2017. The event was originally scheduled for September 2021, but due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, it was decided to shift the event to 2022. The actual rescheduled date is not yet finalized but is expected to be held from 12 to 17 of October 2022, The slogan for WorldSkills Shanghai 2022 is “New Youth, New Skills, New Dream”.
Some WorldSkills Competition events took place in Cleveland, Ohio in October 2022. while others took place in Salzburg, Austria and Finland. WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition was the official replacement for WorldSkills Shanghai 2022, cancelled in May due to the pandemic.
Lyon, France was selected as the host city for the 47th WorldSkills competition. Originally scheduled for 12–17 September 2023, it has been moved back one year due to the decision to postpone by one year the 46th Worldskills event originally scheduled to be held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. This will be the second time that France has hosted the WorldSkills competition, the first time being in 1995.