WorldSkills Brings France’s Summer of Global Competitions to a Close

Attendees from Japan and Hong Kong share a jubilant moment at WorldSkills 2024 in Lyon, France.

Photo courtesy of WorldSkills

How do you get 100,000 visitors to your city because of vocational education?

Put your city in France, for starters. And invite everyone.

WorldSkills, the global skills competition in skills ranging from butchery, CNC milling and carpentry to mechatronics, baking and welding, wrapped in September in Lyon, France. I learned about it when I met Sheila Hyde-Clower, a faculty member in the Culinary Pastry Hospitality division at the El Centro campus of Dallas College in Texas. An ACTE NextLevel Postsecondary CTE Leadership Program Fellow, she was in Chicago in September to attend the ECMC Foundation annual convening of fellows focused on CTE topics.

What’s CTE, you ask? In the world of workforce development and community colleges, CTE refers to career and technical education. (ACTE is the Association for Career and Technical Education.) Some in the community have to remind non-educators that the term does NOT refer in this context to another CTE rising in prominence in recent years: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, the degenerative disease affecting athletes and others who have suffered repeated concussions or brain injuries.

A different acronym is used internationally: TVET stands for technical and vocational education and training, and it’s a term found throughout the world of WorldSkills.

The United States sent seven teams or competitors to the event in Lyon. Wyatt Hansen secured the nation’s only medal with a bronze in welding. Nathan Bolthuis earned a Medallion for Excellence in automobile technology and Cale Mouser earned the same honor in heavy vehicle technology. Novirah Lone, who finished just outside the medals in cooking, is the same competitor who last year took home the high school division gold medal at the 2023 National Skills USA Championships in Atlanta.

The U.S. squad at WorldSkills (half of whom are pictured here) was small but mighty, earning major points across a number of disciplines and a bronze medal in welding. Photo courtesy of Sheila Hyde-Clower

China (which led all countries by a long shot in results) sent 59 teams or competitors, Japan sent 47 and Brazil sent 56. Hyde-Clower says government funding and/or a major sponsor could beef up the squad for the next biennial WorldSkills competition.

“It is truly an honor to showcase the incredible talent and dedication our country brings to the global stage of career and technical education,” she wrote in an email this week. “As the Expert Lead for Restaurant Service, I had the privilege of working closely with an international team to ensure a fair and transparent competition, fostering a supportive environment for all competitors. Participating in WorldSkills is not just about the event itself — it positions the USA as a leader in this field and allows us to bring back valuable insights that directly enhance our SkillsUSA programs, benefiting all students. By sharing these experiences, I hope to inspire broader participation and encourage more sponsorships, so we can support even more Competitors and Experts at the next WorldSkills International Competition in Shanghai in 2026.”

Our conversation drove me to dive into the competition’s results to see which countries, regions and institutions displayed the most prowess via the event’s 1,400 competitors, much as I scoured geographic results of the SkillsUSA competition in Atlanta earlier this year.

Here are the top-performing countries across three scoring metrics:

Top 20 Countries by Total Points Scored

Top 20 Countries by Average Point Score

Top 10 Countries by Average Medal Points (4 points for gold, 3 for silver, etc.)

China’s competitors earned 36 of the 78 gold medals awarded. While ranked No. 6 and No. 8 respectively in total points, Korea and Switzerland shot up to No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, when the results were analyzed by points and medal points. Across all categories, in a typical show of per-capita expertise, Singapore’s group of 29 competitors outshone groups twice the size. And the host country of France acquitted itself admirably with a No. 3 finish in total points, No. 6 in medal points and No. 8 in average point score.

A WorldSkills team from Estonia forms a plan of action. Photo courtesy of WorldSkills

WorldSkills officials called the 47th edition of their competition the capstone of a summer of competitions in France that included the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The event featured the Village des Métiers, or Skills Village, at Place Bellecour in the center of Lyon; a Sports & Skills exhibition at the Rhône Prefecture; and Journées Portes Ouvertes, or Company Open Days, which “gave visitors unprecedented access to local business through behind-the-scenes industry tours,” the organization said. WorldSkills’ One School One Country program helped 5,000 students from more than 50 schools in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region interact with competitors. Major companies on hand or sponsoring included Samsung and tool manufacturers Stanley and DeWalt, as well as 26 WorldSkills International Global Industry Partners whose number include 3M, Siemens, Lincoln Electric, Festo, Autodesk, AWS and Festo.

Automotive skills were on full display in Lyon. Photo courtesy of WorldSkills

Meanwhile, two WorldSkills Global Partners — the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials and German plumbing fixtures manufacturer Grohe — set up a social impact project with BTP CFA Rhône training school, just north of Lyon. “They plan to repurpose materials and fittings from the Plumbing and Heating skill competition and use them to create a new washroom for men and women,” WorldSkills said. “As well as bringing a disused space back to life, the project gives students a chance to test out their skills on a live project.”

Expect more live, real-world projects to ensue from these competitors’ real-world skills when the next WorldSkills competition convenes in Shanghai. — Adam Bruns

Photo courtesy of WorldSkills