The five-day WorldSkills Conference 2021 concluded on Friday after 80 experts from all over the world spoke in 14 sessions on pressing issues such as green skills, poverty reduction and new apprenticeships.
With the COVID-19 pandemic as the backdrop, the discussions on the theme "The Road Ahead: Skills for a Resilient Future" explored the future of global skills development.
"We know recovery is a fragile process, but we must pay particular attention to vulnerable and marginalized groups who could be pushed back into extreme poverty," said David Hoey, CEO of WorldSkills International, at the closing ceremony.
Throughout the week, he said, the conference "heard loud and clear that skills are the critical pathway out of the crisis and creating a green future."
"Equal access to skills is necessary to build equal societies and a more resilient world," he said.
The conference has built up confidence in overcoming the challenges and creating a better future, according to four conference moderators who shared their conclusions from intense discussions over the past week.
"The big topics discussed in this year's conference can be really scary, especially for a young person, because all of those topics vastly affect the future, our future," said Jacqueline Tanzer, regional representative for Europe, WorldSkills Champions Trust. "And often this can be so overwhelming and make you feel helpless, because you're so small compared with those big challenges we're facing.
"But what I got from previous discussions, as well as this conference, is that youth are incredibly resilient and brave enough to say, hey, something needs to change, and we want to be the ones to change it."
Nazrene Mannie, executive director of GAN Global Apprenticeship Network, said she was excited to hear the discussions that looked at innovations, invention, partnerships and alliances with "apprenticeship of front center in the drive to create an agile and responsive workforce."
"We've all agreed that apprenticeship is one important way to give people those tools to actively and meaningfully participate in the labor market," she said.
Shayne MacLachlan, communications and public affairs manager of the OECD Center for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, shared several inspiring stories about poverty alleviation around the world.
These included the personal story of Jiang Yingcheng, a young man from a poor mountainous area in China, who chose vocational education and won a gold medal in car painting at the 44th WorldSkills Competition in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2017.
Jiang became a teacher at Hangzhou Technican College in Zhejiang Province. He not only has lifted his family out of poverty but also is passing on his skills to students in vulnerable communities to help them rise through skills development.
"We really need to continue the discussions about poverty alleviation in the context of skills development as there are a wide range of solutions for individuals to overcome poverty," he said.
"We've got to make sure that disadvantaged groups, vulnerable communities can access and participate equally so that no one's left behind."
Neil Bentley-Gockmann, CEO of WorldSkills UK, said the discussions he had moderated concluded the importance of "a real need for tighter workforce planning and for green skills in line with economic change and the development of green jobs by companies and key sectors."
Tang Tao, vice minister of China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said the conference has provided enlightenment on vocational education and training as well as skills development around the world after the COVID-19 pandemic and paved a solid ground for the WorldSkills Conference 2022.
He said China will continue to carry out exchanges and cooperation with the rest of the world, and also contribute Chinese solutions in skills development in the world.
Peng Chenlei, vice mayor of Shanghai, said the city, as a cradle of modern industry in China and one of the talent hubs, is advancing steadily in preparing to host "a refined, safe, memorable" WorldSkills Competition.
A video of the new WorldSkills Museum, which is being developed at the waterfront of Huangpu River, known as Shanghai's "mother river," was shown at the conference closing session. It is set to open during the 46th WorldSkills Competition next year.