China News Service, Shanghai, September 26 (Reporters Li Jiajia, Kang Yuzhan, Xu Yin) On the 26th, the 48th World Skills Competition (hereinafter referred to as the "World Competition") held in Shanghai entered the fourth day of competition. At the painting and decoration project site, a young figure shuttles between various work stations. He is Huang Jian, a certified lecturer of Nippon Paint Industrial Talent Development Center, the technical support person in charge of the paint and decoration project of the Chinese training team of this World Championship, and the assistant site manager of the project.
Eight years ago, Huang Jian stood on the World Championships selection field as a player, chasing his competitive dream; now, at the "Skills Olympics" at home, he stands behind the players as the person in charge of technical support for the paint and decoration project of the Chinese training team. With his first-hand practical experience accumulated in competition preparation and skill assessment in the past, he has built a solid technical support for players around the world, completing his identity transformation from a competitor on the field to a professional and technical guardian of the event.
Huang Jian graduated from Shanghai Sanda College. His background in design has given him a unique keen perception of color levels, spatial composition and artistic expression. During his college years, he got involved in the WorldSkills Competition and deeply combined the artistic aesthetics learned in the classroom with practical painting techniques. In the selection of the 45th World Skills Competition, Huang Jian won the first place in the Shanghai selection competition of the product display project, broke into the national selection competition of the paint and decoration project and won the sixth place, and was successfully selected into the national training team.
In the preparation stage, sandpapering, paint debugging, line calibration, material selection, process control, millimeter-level detail polishing, each process must be practiced repeatedly hundreds or thousands of times. It was this immersive competition preparation experience that allowed him to understand the logic of the competition questions, the strict scoring standards and the technical difficulties that players will encounter on the spot. It also laid the key foreshadowing for his current technical support for competitions, and anchored his career direction of putting competition skills into industrial practice.
Saying goodbye to the competitive arena, Huang Jian took root in the front line of the industry and transformed his painting skills into tangible creative results. Mixing colors, outlining, and painting, he has completed more than 20 wall paintings with a total area of more than 500 square meters. His vivid artistic painting works have been unveiled at the Nippon Paint booth in the National Skills Competition. As his experience increased, Huang Jian transformed from a contestant to an expert in skills evaluation and training. He participated in the preparation of "one test, two certificates" examination questions and front-line evaluation work at the Nippon Paint Industrial Talent Development Center. In 2024, he won the title of "Excellent Evaluator in the Building Materials Industry"; in 2025, he was deeply involved in the school-enterprise cooperation of Lankao Sannong Vocational College, teaching practical courses for students. "I used to be a contestant who accepted the assessment, but now I am the one who sets the questions and assesses the assessment. The superposition of the two identities allows me to better understand what skills practitioners really need." Huang Jian said. On one side is the perspective of a competitor who competes in person, and on the other is the perspective of a referee who evaluates and scores. The dual experience allows him to understand the difficulties and pain points of painting skills better than ordinary people.
The 48th WorldSkills Competition continues to compete at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). Construction technical players from many countries and regions gathered in the arena to compete in their exquisite skills. The picture shows the paint and decoration competition venue, which attracted many spectators to stop and watch. Photo by China News Service reporter Zhang Hengwei
Because he has personally participated in similar events, he is familiar with the technical threshold of the entire competition module and can predict practical problems from the perspective of a player. He told reporters from China News Service that the paint and decoration project is by no means a simple wall painting. The work station completely replicates the actual home decoration scene. The contestants need to complete six modules within 4 days and 22 hours, including wallpaper pasting, multi-process painting of door panels, freehand drawing of complex main images, timed painting, letter transfer, and free creativity. The judging criteria are accurate to the millimeter. L-shaped inner corner wallpaper cutting and patchwork, a wooden door using three processes of spraying, rolling and brushing at the same time, complex graphics drawn by hand without the use of textured paper, the error must be controlled within plus or minus 1 mm; free creative blind question module, time reading and creation immediately, and the completion speed is directly related to the score. The referee inspects the wall inch by inch. Points will be deducted directly if the lines are slightly offset or if the paint leaves rolling marks or edges.
In Huang Jian’s view, the paint industry’s “three-part material, seven-part labor” is clearly reflected in the World Championships. No matter how good the paint is, it is only a semi-finished product, and the final effect always relies on human craftsmanship. Even with the rapid development of AI technology, the basic conditions of home decoration are ever-changing, and on-site processing and fine craftsmanship still cannot be replaced by machines.
From a contestant chasing gold and dreams, to an assessment lecturer who teaches and teaches, to the person in charge of technical support for the World Championships at home, Huang Jian's growth trajectory is the epitome of skilled youth in the new era. On the field, young people from all over the world compete with each other in their skills; outside the field, Huang Jian transforms the rigorous standards of the World Championships into the power of serving the competition and cultivating talents. Skills change the world, and skills illuminate the future. Countless skill practitioners like Huang Jian, relying on their skills, are creating a bright future for skilled talents in the new era. (over)
