The WorldSkills, the global championship of vocational professions, was officially launched in Shanghai on Tuesday with a grand opening ceremony.
The Luxembourgish participants were introduced alongside their international peers, marking the start of this biennial event.
The competition itself begins on Wednesday. Over the coming days, 1,400 young professionals from around the world will compete in 64 different disciplines, each having already secured victory in their respective national contests to qualify. Winners at WorldSkills can claim to be the very best in their field on an international stage.
Luxembourg is being represented by six young participants competing in five areas: aircraft maintenance, digital construction, landscape gardening, restaurant service, and plumbing, installation, and heating.
William Cao, competing in the 'Digital Construction' discipline, says the challenges awaiting him over the next few days are hard to predict. However, he is mainly concerned about the overwhelming noise and crowds.
With up to 800,000 people expected to attend, Cao points out that no amount of preparation can truly simulate that environment. To help him concentrate, he has brought earplugs and intends to focus as much as possible.
Other competitors, such as Bjarne Weber and Florian Theisen, who will participate in landscape gardening, know their assignment in advance. They will be tasked with building an Asian-style garden.
As Weber explains, this creates a unique challenge for them, since their Chinese or Asian competitors work with these garden designs regularly, while the style is entirely new to the Luxembourgish team.
For Claudine Thoma, Luxembourg’s technical delegate at WorldSkills, the event is an important opportunity to highlight the value of vocational and technical education, and the skills needed for the future.
She notes that WorldSkills was originally founded after the Second World War to address a shortage of qualified professionals, a challenge that still exists today.
Thoma emphasises that vocational training should not be seen as a second choice, but rather as an essential part of society, the education system, and the future of industry and the economy.
The competition runs until 26 September, with the winners set to be announced at the closing ceremony on the final day.
RTL is on the ground in Shanghai, following the Luxembourg team throughout the event.
