China is headed toward world leadership in training skilled professionals, president of the Amsterdam-based WorldSkills International said on Sunday.
Simon Bartley, who was here for the closing ceremony of the 43rd Worldskills Competition on Sunday, said his prediction was based on the notable headway China has made in promoting education and productivity in manufacturing in recent years.
China has "gradually progressed" in the biennial WorldSkills Competition, billed as the "Olympics of Skills." It has skilled talents in one fourth of the competing fields, while performing above average in the other fields, said the British-born expert in promoting skilled labor.
South Korea is the reigning champion of the WorldSkills contests, while the other ever-victorious top 10 include Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, Japan and China.
"Just as China has achieved impressive success at the Olympic Games, I'm convinced that in 10 years, it will overtake South Korea and Switzerland to become the top scorer in these (skilled) areas," said Bartley.
To bridge the gap, China must promote certain key fields in basic education, such as science and mathematics, and create conditions to train a greater number of skilled technical professionals, he said.
"Only in this way can the country improve production efficiency in the areas of manufacturing and energy infrastructure, among others," Bartley said.
"Through visits to China, I understood the Chinese government and society's need and urgency to raise the level of the population's technological training," the expert said.
Training skilled professionals is like building a pyramid in which each person represents a "brick": the broader the base, the larger and more solid the structure, he added.
