Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Wednesday addressed the opening ceremony of the WorldSkills Conference 2026 in Shanghai, calling for closer international exchanges and cooperation on skills development. The WorldSkills Conference 2026 and the WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 Expo were held alongside the competition.

　　Brand new skills

　　This edition has set four all‑time records: the highest number of competition disciplines, the largest batch of newly‑added events, the broadest participation of countries and regions and the biggest cohort of competing young talents.

　　Seven brand‑new skill categories make their debut this year, including Dental Prosthetics, Digital Interactive Media Design, Intelligent Security Technology, Rail Vehicle Technology, Retail Sales, Software Testing and Unmanned Aerial Systems, reflecting innovation, digital transformation and emerging industries.

　　In dental prosthetics, competitors are tasked with designing and fabricating dental crowns, bridges, dentures and night guards. They transform raw oral‑scan data into finished restorative products using computer‑aided design (CAD), additive manufacturing and Computer Numerical Control (CNC) milling. Where dental restorations once depended largely on manual dexterity and empirical know‑how, the trade today merges digital technologies, materials science and dental expertise.

　　Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday that as emerging technologies create brand-new occupations, updated competition modules replicate real-world factory and workplace environments for participants. These newly introduced contest tracks mirror a global shift toward high-tech, high-value manufacturing, which demands more versatile and highly specialized skilled workers.