A contestant works on a garment during the Fashion Technology competition at the 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai on September 23, 2026. Photo: Pang Yue/GT

　　The 48th WorldSkills Competition, dubbed the "Olympics of vocational skills," kicked off its first full day of contests in Shanghai on Wednesday morning, bringing together 1,385 young competitors from 68 countries and regions across 64 skill categories, spanning traditional craftsmanship and emerging digital categories.

　　At 10 am, the Joinery contest got underway. Twenty competitors from 20 countries and regions compete over four days, with 22 hours of total hands-on competition time. Joint gaps must stay below 0.4 millimeters, while a perfect score requires precision of under 0.2 millimeters, thinner than two stacked sheets of A4 paper.

　　This high‑stakes craftsmanship event is just one snapshot of the bustling venue. At retail‑event workstations, competitors fitted baby waist carriers to demonstrate products to customers in the retail competition category. Over in the beauty and hairdressing zone, contestants leaned in to deliver hands‑on treatments for models. On cutting‑edge‑technology tracks, young athletes focused intently on assembling and debugging sophisticated equipment. Countdown clocks ticked along the venue walls, wrapping the whole arena in an air of concentrated urgency.

　　The event serves as a cross-border platform to exchange know-how, align vocational training with fast-evolving industrial needs and foster the versatile, high-skill workforce required to power global high-value manufacturing and sustainable economic growth, experts said.