The Olympic Games in Paris are over – now another French metropolis is taking center stage: Lyon will host the 47th WorldSkills from September 10 to 15, 2024. The WorldSkills Championships will bring together more than 1,500 young people from over 65 countries and regions to compete in 62 competitions.

Every two years since 1950, young skilled workers from all over the world have competed in the WorldSkills Championships. They measure their skills in the individual trades in accordance with the demanding WorldSkills standards. The participants qualify beforehand through a national selection process.

Industry-related learning solutions as competition equipment

During the four days of the competition, the teams of young skilled workers work on solutions for highly technical tasks using learning systems provided by Festo Didactic. Festo has been a Global Industry Partner of WorldSkills since 1991. Global Industry Partners play a key role in the cooperation between industry, education, and political decision-makers.

Their common goal is to improve the education and recognition of skilled professionals around the world. Festo Didactic offers state-of-the-art industry-related learning solutions and is a sponsor for the future-oriented and sustainable WorldSkills competitions Mechatronics, Industry 4.0, Water Technology, Renewable Energies. It is also a pneumatics and software supplier for the competition disciplines Industrial Mechanics and Industrial Controls.

Festo apprentices at the WorldSkills competition

Mechatronics technicians Paul Schunck and Julian Winter from the Festo plant in St. Ingbert-Rohrbach, Saarland, won the German championship in the "Industry 4.0" discipline last year. The reward: the two trainees are allowed to represent the German colors at WorldSkills and compete for the world championship title of the world's best trainees. In the Industry 4.0 competition, the trainees must build a mechatronic production system with a particular focus on information security.

Accompanying WorldSkills Conference

The WorldSkills Conference 2024 will take place alongside the competitions. On 11 and 12 September, the conference will provide a discussion platform for political and industrial decision-makers, education providers and young people on topics such as excellence in vocational education and training, gender segregation in skills, the transition to a green economy with green skills, skills development for fragile economies, digitalization, and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Oliver Niese, CEO of Festo Didactic SE, underlines the importance of high-quality vocational training programs for the economy and the preparation for the changes in the labor market, especially regarding the green transformation and the application of artificial intelligence: "WorldSkills plays a crucial role in integrating vocational training into the global agenda for sustainable development and in providing the necessary skills."