China's skilled workers impress on world stage

A highly skilled operator uses an excavator to stack individual champagne glasses during a skills competition in Qingdao, Shandong province, in September. Ye Zhihao, executive director of Guangzhou High Genius Dynamics Co, said China's participation in WorldSkills has brought benefits to the nation's cultivation and evaluation of skilled people. Zhang Rui, deputy director of the WorldSkills Competition China Research Center in Tianjin, said that though vocational schools have open attitudes to cooperating with companies to help their students better adapt to market needs, the cooperation should be further deepened in curriculum design and with more investment. "The public still prefers academic achievement rather than vocational education, thus it still requires efforts from governments, schools and companies to raise the social status of skilled students and skilled workers," she said, adding that the widening regional gap in vocational education needs to be tackled. Ye Zhihao, the executive director, added: "The manufacturing industry is the foundation for the nation's development, and requires diversified talent ranging from knowledge-based researchers to the skilled people who can deftly operate and maintain precision and high-tech machines."