WorldSkills Shanghai has been postponed until 2022, it has been confirmed this afternoon.
The competition was originally due to take place in September 2021 but has been pushed back owing to coronavirus disruption.
Euroskills Graz - which was originally planned to take place in August 2020 before being moved to January 2021 - was “postponed indefinitely” last month.
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Neil Bentley-Gockmann, chief executive of WorldSkills UK, said: “We have, today, been informed by the boards of WorldSkills and WorldSkills Shanghai 2021 that, as a result of the ongoing impact of Covid-19 globally, the very difficult decision has been taken to postpone WorldSkills Shanghai until 2022.
“The UK remains committed to competing at WorldSkills Shanghai and we will continue to support our Squad UK members, their employers, colleges and training providers, and the wider training team, who have been working tirelessly to prepare for the competition, so we can deliver a medal-winning performance for the UK in 2022.
“Today’s announcement also means we will bring even more to the fore our growing international work to harness insights from ongoing collaboration with the 85 other countries in the WorldSkills’ global network to continue to share best practice in skills development to help mainstream excellence in training across the UK.
“This will enhance, as set out in our Covid-19 plan, our ongoing work to increase our digital resources so that we can enable more young people and educators access to world-class training methods to reach the higher standards employers need as we continue to face a challenging and changing economic landscape.
“As we reset our sights on WorldSkills Shanghai for 2022, we are confident that Team UK will once again step up to demonstrate excellence in skills on the world stage and showcase the UK as a world-class place to invest, do business and create jobs.”
This decision means that all future events will also be moved by one year, so WorldSkills Lyon 2023 will move to 2024.
WorldSkills also confirmed that rules around age eligibility will be amended for this competition only, so all competitors currently in training for WorldSkills Shanghai will be eligible for selection.
Chris Humphries, president and chair of the board, said: “Our competitors represent the skilled talent that has been essential in the global response to the pandemic, demonstrating without a doubt that skills change lives.
“We are grateful for the support of both WorldSkills China and WorldSkills France, and their organising teams, who have worked closely with WorldSkills International to reach what we all believe is the best solution to preserve the integrity and spirit of the competition.”
