Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
In today's labor market, knowing how to do something and do it well is what really counts.
On World Youth Skills Day, we look at how China is training its next generation in fields such as machining, mobile robotics, and even warm world -class hospitality.
Hospitality. Coming to you live from Beijing, this is Roundtable.
I'm He Yang. For today's program, I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Yu Xun in the studio, first on today's show.
We've discussed on yesterday's show about how the gap between college education and real world jobs can feel like a Grand Canyon, especially for young people trying to start their careers.
Micro -degrees could be part of the solution.
Just check out yesterday's show.
But today, Today, we're looking at a bigger picture, how World Youth Skills Day is pushing countries to invest in practical, hands -on skills that actually match what industries need.
In China, this means everything from CNC machining to AI programming, skills that are building real careers.
So how did this day come about?
Why does the world need a dedicated day to focus on youth skills?
First of all, World Youth Skills Day, which is celebrated every July the 15th, and it was established by the United Nations in 2014 to raise the awareness of the importance of youth skills development, especially in areas like technical education, digital literacy, and also entrepreneurship.
entrepreneurship and how vital youth development can be is, you know, because globally there are concerns of, you know, youth employment and skill mismatch. And this day reminds governments, schools, and also industries that investing in vocational and high tech skills isn't just good policy.
And it is net as it's kind of a necessity for suitable development.
Yeah. Sustainable development, right?
It only makes sense.
You want to make sure that your next generation of individuals is coming into the workforce as prepared as they possibly can be.
And China's taken it pretty seriously from vocational training to different AI competitions.
China's seeing a surge in young people using their skills to build exciting careers.
And speaking about skills and exciting, have you heard of the World Skills Competition and the World Skills Conference?
conference um the world skills competition i hadn't heard of it before it's pretty cool it's held every two to three years and it's often described as the olympics of skills and it gathers top young professionals from around the world to compete in different trades i was watching some videos online um they do lots of different things they do construction and building technology like brick laying and cabinet making they do creative arts and fashion like fashion tech and and Floristry.
They also do things like baking and beauty therapy and cooking.
It's just everything under the sun, and it's really kind of a cool event.
I believe the next one is going to be held, or next year's event will be held in Shanghai.
That's going to be the 48th edition.
Wow. Yeah. And also you mentioned the WorldSkills Conference.
It is kind of a policy forum, and it held alongside these competitions.
And this conference brings together also global educators, policymakers, and employers to discuss how to reform and align skills education with labor market needs.
And this kind of thing is strongly overlapped with World Youth Skills Day themes like improving access to training and reducing youth unemployment.
Lots of activities are taking place in China.
Let's take a look at how we're celebrating celebrating World Youth Skills Day this year.
It's really fantastic to see, you know, the major kickoff in some of the cities like Guangzhou in southern China on July 11th.
Over 600 attendees gathered for the theme of Skills Light the Future.
That's the theme of this event, including world skills champions and students and industry leaders.
And what truly stood out was, you know, know three key sections uh one champions of world skills sharing they can share their ideas and experiences in taking these competition skills exhibits and case studies of how these competition achievements translating to real projects and each showed how uh competitions trans uh this kind of uh things and real world technologies that has been used and practiced yep and then In Guangdong, they launched WorldSkills AI Assistant Platform, which is a smart tool that offers multimedia resources, event data, and instant answers about skills training.
That's pretty cool.
There's four themed exhibition zones where students can, or competitors or anyone can take part.
They've got the student work showcases.
They've got the immersive skills booth, the AI tech zones, and the WorldSkills innovation Innovation projects that helped young visitors understand the real world power of skills.
Maybe not competitors there.
I don't think that was a competitive event, but still lots to learn and lots to see and lots of new stuff, new cool stuff, too.
Very much indeed. Young people in China have turned their training into gold medals and career breakthroughs.
What have Chinese young people achieved through these skilled programs?
First of all, all of these participants, they're quite young.
The average age of recipients of the State Natural Science Award for their achievements is under 45.
Many projects teams for major strategic tasks like Beidou Navigation, the domestic navigation system.
Lunar exploration and Mars exploration have an average age of over 30.
And so they are actually studying or trying to practice skills in these kind of areas.
Also, you know, breakthroughs in these competitions is what we can see in 2024.
China won 36 gold medals at the World Skills Competition in in Lyon and ranking first globally.
It really is like the Olympics, isn't it?
Yeah, there were younger winners as well.
Well, Lu Jingyi, who's just 19, won the gold medal in chemical lab tech, which is a pretty impressive prize to win at that age.
So, yeah, you mentioned it's for people in their 40s.
It's a world skills competition, right?
So it's not just for young students.
It could be for anyone.
But, yeah, the average age tends to be on the younger side.
Yeah, and it's really – also, I don't know if this was done on purpose or it just happened to be that so many young people have caught the media's attention.
Hu Gengjun, who won China's first gold in mobile robotics, was only 18 years old.
And after many of his inventions, such as rescue drones, are now used in real operations.
And these kind of things really inspire people.
And here I want to ask you guys something.
How are these stories helping change the image of technical and vocational careers in China?
At least, first of all, it is telling people that these are the skills that we can actually use in the future.
And it is not telling people, OK, we can only have one path of academic study.
You can only go to maybe, let's say, middle school, high school, college and everything.
You can still you can also, I mean, have these kind of skills studying maybe in vocational school and you can be really, really good at.
And it can create a really, really good future for you that you don't even have when you are just going to like the normal path, like high school and universities.
Or you don't realize.
And also it gives the prestige to these kind of professions and vocations that previously, at least in our culture, it's certainly not always there.
Yeah, exactly. And when you get the attention, then you have cities and policies that support that attention.
So you've got cities like Suzhou and Shanghai and Beijing that will support youth in their skills to help them get started.
In those cities that I just mentioned, they'll offer housing or startup grants or job matching.
Shanghai's Pudong District, they offer free apartments to young entrepreneurs and visa support for global youth.
So there's, like you said, when the attention comes, then the support and the policy comes too.
Of course, achievements don't happen in a vacuum.
It usually takes a strong support system.
What strategies and programs do we see in China help young people to thrive in this area?
What we are seeing is that, you know, something in that kind of area and for kind of vocational talents, you know, over 200 million skilled workers now make up more than 26 percent of China's employed population, with 60 million classified as high skilled.
That means that there's going to be that huge kind of demand and rapid advancements in AI, big data and smart manufacturing are exposing a mismatch between, you know, let's say talent quality and also industry needs.
So we should and we have to have that kind of awareness of improving the whole, I say, industry of skills, talent.
Yeah. And as I said before, and as you just said, the policy supports that, right?
And it comes from different places, key industries like manufacturing in IT and digital services.
There are labor shortages there in 2021, for example, nearly half of the top 30 most in -demand jobs were tech or manufacturing related.
So when you find new talent through, for example, these skills competitions, then you can help to reduce that gap.
That is true. As China's economy, including the tech and manufacturing sector, continues to upgrade, one thing is clear.
Skills are the new currency.
is about having the skill set to contribute, to create, and to grow in this thriving economy, and that is the kind of future worth training for.
