WorldSkills summit to help city boost employment

Hosting a creative and influential WorldSkills Competition is one of the six main human resources and social security priorities for the city this year.

Shanghai will spare no effort in organizing the 46th WorldSkills Competition, the WorldSkills Conference and WorldSkills Expo, and building the WorldSkills Museum, a conference heard today.

The 46th WorldSkills Competition had been scheduled to take place on the Chinese mainland for the first time in September last year but was postponed to October 12-17 this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other activities, including the WorldSkills Conference and WorldSkills Expo, will also be run, while the WorldSkills Museum will open to the public during the event to promote skills profiles.

Shanghai will give full play to the spillover effect of the competition to promote the cultivation of skilled talent in the city.

It will also improve its vocational skills competition system, including organizing the first Shanghai Vocational Skills Competition and preparing competitors for national skills matches.

It will also organize large-scale vocational skills training and develop a batch of new technical schools and cultivate about 10,000 new apprentices for enterprises to meet the rising demand of industry.

Non-governmental vocational qualification accreditation will be promoted while vocational school graduates are encouraged to apply.

The city will also improve the selection, awarding and sponsorship of highly skilled talent.

Other tasks this year include promoting employment.

The city aims to add 550,000 new jobs, support 10,000 people to start their own businesses and help 8,000 long-term unemployed young people find jobs to keep the jobless number at 170,000, or 5 percent of its workforce.

To achieve the goal, the city will further encourage innovation and startups to create more jobs and support flexible employment.

Last year, the city created 635,100 new jobs, lifting the total employed population to a historic high of more than 10.84 million.

The city will also devote itself to attracting more talent with measures including improving sponsorships for high-level talent and organizing job fairs facing to the world.