The 48th WorldSkills Competition will feature seven new competition categories that mirror emerging industries, leading global vocational education into the digital and intelligent age.
Held every two years, the WorldSkills Competition is the world's largest international gathering of skills talent. The event is scheduled to take place in Shanghai from September 22 to 27 this year, with nearly 70 countries and regions expected to send about 1,400 competitors.
The competition will feature 64 skills, including seven new skills, namely unmanned aerial systems, digital interactive media design, rail vehicle technology, intelligent security technology, software testing, dental prosthetics, and retail sales.
While testing competitors' capabilities for handling new technologies and using AI tools to solve problems at work, the event is also accelerating the pace of turning competition standards to educational and training standards so as to provide reference for the cultivation of skilled professionals.
"So, competition is more than just about the competitors inside the workshop, it's about the whole skills festival and focus that comes around that. And so, we hope that every visitor is touched by and motivated by something that inspires, at a minimum, to get an appreciation of the value of skills. And maybe for some of them, it sparks dreams for what they would like to be able to do in their own future," said David Hoey, CEO of WorldSkills International.
WorldSkills Shanghai adds 7 new skills, reflecting emerging industries
Yemen's Houthi group said that it had carried out multiple attacks on Saudi and Saudi-led coalition targets, while the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a Houthi missile, and Yemeni government forces reported operations against the group on several fronts.
In a statement released early Thursday, the Houthis said they used a surface-to-air missile to hit a Saudi Typhoon fighter jet. The aircraft, they said, had taken off from Saudi Arabia's Taif Air Base and was hit over Yemen's Sa'adah Province. Saudi Arabia has not yet responded to the claim.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Houthis said they launched a large-scale attack using ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones against oil facilities of energy giant Saudi Aramco in Dhahran in eastern Saudi Arabia, as well as King Khalid International Airport and a Saudi Aramco refinery in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The Houthis said in a separate statement released Wednesday evening that the group had fired one more ballistic missile at King Khalid International Airport and launched three ballistic missiles at Saudi-led coalition targets in southern Yemen.
Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said on Wednesday that they had intercepted and destroyed a Houthi ballistic missile fired toward Riyadh. Saudi Arabia's General Directorate of Civil Defense said in a statement on Wednesday that fragments from the intercepted missile fell in Riyadh, injuring one person.
Meanwhile, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported that late on Wednesday the Saudi-led coalition carried out an airstrike on a residential building in the Al Maravi'ah area of Hodeidah province, which is under Houthi control. Early on Thursday, al-Masirah also reported that Yemen's capital, Sanaa, had come under Saudi attack.
According to a Houthi statement issued on Wednesday evening, the Saudi-led coalition launched 42 airstrikes and missile attacks on Houthi-controlled areas in the previous 24 hours. The Houthis said that Saudi attacks on islands in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait directly threatened the safety of maritime shipping routes.
Separately, Yemeni government forces said on Wednesday that they continued to strike Houthi targets and personnel on the eastern and southern fronts.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and much of northern Yemen, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 in support of the Yemeni government.
Houthis, Saudi-led coalition report fresh military actions against each other
