Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, September 26. Title: From manual skills to digital applications - see the portrait of future skilled talents at the WorldSkills Competition
Xinhua News Agency reporters Gao Kang, Zhao Hanze and Zhang Xiaojie
In the exhibition hall of the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai), drone rotors buzzed, lines of code flew on the computer screen, and in the baking competition, contestants baked a wide variety of beautiful pastries and delicacies... In the past few days, the 48th World Skills Competition was held in Shanghai, and young talents from 68 countries and regions around the world gathered on the banks of the Huangpu River.
Once upon a time, craftsmanship and skills meant sweat and repetition, the roar in the workshop and the calluses on the hands. Nowadays, traditional skills and digital applications compete on the same field. Through the World Competition, people can feel the profound changes in the connotation of skills in the changing times.
If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools. The traditional "tools" are hammers, chisels, saws and planers. Today's "tools" include artificial intelligence, algorithms, codes and smart terminals. In this year's World Championship, there is a new category - software testing. What the contestants face is not a cold machine, but a dazzling program code.
"Unlike traditional programmers, computer software testers are like 'quality inspectors' in the digital field." Yang Jiyin, a test engineer at the software testing competition venue, told reporters that in addition to learning programming skills, testers should also have comprehensive capabilities such as quality inspection and customer group analysis to better check whether systems such as e-commerce platforms and social networking sites meet requirements and troubleshoot potential problems.
Yang Jiyin believes that the introduction of software testing and other competitions will promote the formation of a standardized software testing teaching and ability training system, and add professional quality control links to the Internet and software R&D industry chains, promoting the upgrading of industry product delivery quality. The World Series has further broadened the development space for talents in the digital field.
The reporter came to the Smart Security Technology Arena, which is also a new event in this World Championship. In addition to completing the installation of hardware such as monitoring probes, the contestants also have to complete the configuration and operation and maintenance debugging of digital software and become the focus of the assessment. The former "cord pullers" are transforming into "digital engineers."
Guangdong Weikang Education Technology Co., Ltd. provides technical support and other work for the smart security technology competition. Song Peng, director of the company's marketing center, believes that artificial intelligence, digitalization and other related capabilities have gradually become new demands for traditional skills positions. Taking smart security technology as an example, intelligent systems can significantly reduce the pressure on manual duty, and positions such as line and equipment maintenance in remote areas have put forward more comprehensive skill requirements for personnel.
This change in professional skills is not accidental, but the result of the digital upgrading of industry. Skilled talents are no longer just executors, but also controllers of emerging technologies and innovators of scenarios.
"Future skilled talents need to have both the wisdom of hands and brain and the ability to integrate across industries." Liu Haibo, deputy director of Guangzhou Traffic Technician College, said that it can be truly felt from the World Championships that the rapid development of technologies such as artificial intelligence is promoting the transformation of skill requirements from single technical operations to complex operations. From "being able to operate" to "understanding technology, being good at innovation, and able to collaborate", the portrait of skilled talents is undergoing tremendous changes.
In the retail competition venue, the reporter saw that the contestants arranged their simulated "stores" very exquisitely, with various products arranged in an orderly manner, and the contestants were busy in front of the computer.
Sun Haitao, assistant venue manager for the retail competition, told reporters that the competition venue also has a live sales link. Players must not only be proficient in physical store sales skills, but also have comprehensive qualities such as digital marketing capabilities, brand flow thinking, consumer empathy, and aesthetic design.
"The new projects added to the World Championships reveal the development trends of industries and industries, which are of great significance to the development of emerging professions." Florian Zimmer, leader of the German delegation of the World Championships, said that skilled talents should continue to learn new knowledge and actively explore new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data.
Wuhan, Chairman of WorldSkills Organization, believes that skilled talents need to have more creativity, resilience and courage. Allowing more people to set firmer goals, create with greater courage, and innovate with greater courage is the driving force for the world skills movement to continue to move forward.
The Chinese delegation has ranked first in the gold medal list for four consecutive World Championships. Behind this is the solid support of the construction of a modern industrial system. From achieving zero medal breakthroughs to today's leaders, the growth curve of China's skilled youth resonates with the country's industrial upgrading. The complete range of industrial categories provides a broad stage for skilled talents, and also breeds the craftsman spirit of excellence.
Currently, the total number of skilled workers in my country exceeds 220 million, including more than 72 million highly skilled talents. Looking to the future, society's demand for highly skilled talents remains urgent. Breaking career barriers, unblocking development channels, promoting social cognition to keep pace with the times, and creating a social atmosphere where labor is glorious requires the joint efforts of all parties.
From manual skills to digital applications, what changes are the tools and forms, but what remains unchanged is the ingenuity and pursuit. Facing the "15th Five-Year Plan", an army of knowledge-based, skilled and innovative workers is growing. The skills in their hands are connected not only to the machine tools in the workshop, but also to the computing power in the cloud, and to the broad future of China's manufacturing to China's creation.
