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WorldSkills International is a worldwide movement created to promote vocational occupations and to enhance the status and standards of training skilled trade professionals around the world. Russia joined the organisation in 2012, becoming the 60^th country to participate in the international initiative, which now includes 80 states.

The 45^th WorldSkills competition brought together some 1,300 young professionals from 63 countries who competed in 56 competencies. The Russian team consisted of 63 competitors, including 14 young women and 49 young men aged between 18 and 25. They come from the Arkhangelsk, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kostroma, Kurgan, Leningrad, Lipetsk, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Orel, Ryazan, Samara, Sverdlovsk, Tula, Tyumen, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl regions, the Krasnodar and Krasnoyarsk territories, the republics of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and Chuvashia, as well as Moscow.

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Speech at the closing ceremony of the WorldSkills competition

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, ladies and gentlemen,

I wholeheartedly congratulate the winners and medallists of the 45^th WorldSkills competition of vocational skills. We also appreciate the performance of all the participants. You demonstrated outstanding techniques and skills, which you have refined and honed to virtuoso heights.

This was the first time that Russia hosted a competition of the world’s best professionals, and it became the largest and most representative in the movement’s entire history, as well as a rewarding and memorable experience.

I am confident that our guests loved Kazan, a wonderful and rapidly developing city with a long history and modern achievements, where the best possible conditions have been created for a fair competition and friendly communication of visitors and participants from over 60 countries.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank once again the WorldSkills International movement and Mr Simon Bartley personally for his trust and support. Thank you very much. I would like to reaffirm our commitment to the WorldSkills values. In Russia, 500,000 people joined this movement, and the number of its supporters and participants is growing steadily.

In this country, WorldSkills has become a crucial element in an advanced system of vocational training we are establishing, including in digital economy categories. We are modifying our colleges and providing broad opportunities, without a parallel in the world, for young people to engage in technical creativity. We are glad that our best practices have proved highly relevant. Here in Kazan, school students competed in vocational skills for the first time in history. Contests in the competencies of the future have sparked huge interest as well.

Friends, the 45^th WorldSkills competition is drawing to a close. Our common responsibility is to preserve and use its legacy for the benefit of citizens of all our countries so that each person, regardless of his or her age and health status, could realise their potential, choose their own path of training and development, and acquire highly needed skills throughout their lifetime.

Russia is open to a joint effort to establish an affordable and continuous personnel training model of this kind. In this way, we can jointly respond to challenges of the advancing technological era, ensure sustainable development, and create conditions for improving living standards. I am referring to large-scale and truly civilizational objectives. And, as I see it, their attainment represents a unifying and humane mission pursued by WorldSkills.

I am confident that the next WorldSkills competition scheduled to be held in 2021 in Shanghai will be an important step forward in promoting its principles. We are pleased to hand the relay baton to our Chinese friends.

And, of course, we will do our best to hold the European championship in St Petersburg in 2022 at the highest level. We look forward to seeing you in Russia again. We wish you every success and new victories.

Thank you, Tatarstan! Thank you, Kazan!