Shanghai building a WorldSkills Museum
A project to be completed by the end of 2020 will turn a century-old Wing On Department Store warehouse into the WorldSkills Museum on the Yangpu District waterfront.
Some of the exhibits for the museum were unveiled at the 45th WorldSkills Competition in Kazan, Russia, on Thursday.
A series of high-tech interactive exhibitions at the competition showcase China's skills in various fields as well as Shanghai's ambition to promote its tourism, shopping, culture and manufacturing, the city government said.
Shanghai is hosting the 46th WorldSkills Competition, known as the Skills Olympics, from September 22 to 27 in 2021.
The museum, organized by WorldSkills International, China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Shanghai government, will open to the public along with the competition. It will be a permanent non-profit venue and open free of charge.
The museum will be a center for showcasing world skills, an international platform for communication on skills, a skills education center for young people around the world and a documentation center for WorldSkills International, said Shen Hao, an official in charge of the museum's construction.
Work to convert the 10,000-square-meter warehouse near the Yangpu Bridge is underway.
The warehouse on the Huangpu River was built in the 1920s as one of the major textile warehouses for Wing On, one of the four leading department stores on Nanjing Road E.
The museum has received over 700 items from home and abroad related to textiles, steel, aerospace, shipbuilding and automobiles.
Visitors to the ongoing exhibition will be transported from the site of the Kazan WorldSkills Competition to the 632-meter Shanghai Tower through virtual reality facilities. At a future automobile factory, visitors can dismantle or assemble a car.
Some of the highlights are being showcased on the sidelines of the competition in Kazan. Shanghai Construction Group and SAIC Motor, for instance, are displaying their achievements in high-end skills equipment and training.
SAIC gives a glimpse of the future of smart cars. Visitors can experience a future smart factory of SAIC through immersive VR equipment and explore the history and development of smart cars.
SAIC has always attached great importance to the cultivation of highly skilled personnel, an official with the company said.
Luo Liang and Yang Shanwei, award winners of the previous two WorldSkills Competitions on car repairing, have become employees of SAIC.
Xu Aomen, this year’s Chinese contestant in the skill category, has also received a job offer from the company.
Up to now, SAIC has invested more than 650 million yuan (US$91.8 million) to build high-skilled personnel training bases. It has formed a team of 25,000 highly skilled employees, accounting for 33 percent of its total personnel.
At the same time, it has found and cultivated a group of outstanding future designers through a series of activities such as the SAIC Design International Challenge.
At the interactive section of Shanghai Construction Group, audiences can wear VR glasses to "walk" into Shanghai Tower, the world’s second-tallest building after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The system that stabilizes the building in gales is being displayed using VR.
A series of Shanghai landmark models, such as the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai Tower, are also on display at the China exhibition zone.
China first entered the competition in 2011 and the past four editions have reaped 20 gold medals, 15 silver, 15 bronze and 41 other prizes.