On September 24th, the Thematic Parallel Session on Skill Development of the 2026 WorldSkills Conference was held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). At the session, SUES and Federation University Australia (FedUni) formally signed a pairing agreement, and the two sides will carry out a cooperative education program in two majors: Mechanical Manufacturing and Automation, and Intelligent Control Technology. This signing is an important practical outcome of SUES’ continued efforts to advance in-depth Sino-Australia vocational education exchanges, following the Sino-Australia Vocational Education Forum held on September 22nd.
Wang Xiaoping, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security; Zhu Zhongming, Acting Mayor of Shanghai; and David Hoey, Chief Executive Officer of WorldSkills International, attended the parallel session and jointly signed a letter of intent for cooperation on the World Skills Innovation Center. Yan Qinghui, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, and Chen Jie, Vice Mayor of Shanghai, delivered keynote speeches respectively.
The conference released the Shanghai Catalogue for Comparative Recognition of Overseas Vocational Skills. Nine universities and vocational colleges in Shanghai signed pairing agreements with nine overseas institutions, SUES was among them.
On the Pairing Agreement Signing Ceremony, SUES President Lou Yongqi and Darren Gray, Vice-Chancellor of FedUni, completed the signing on behalf of both sides. This signing builds on the consensus of the Sino-Australia Vocational Education Forum and further consolidates the institutional foundation for vocational education dialogue between China and Australia. China and Australia each have their own strengths in the fields of advanced manufacturing and intelligent control. The cooperative education program will open up practical channels for cross-border training of skilled talent and mutual recognition of skills standards, promote mutual learning between the two countries’ vocational education systems in areas such as program development, faculty development, student exchanges, and skills competitions, and build a tangible platform for the long-term collaborative development of China-Australia vocational education.
As an important supporting exchange activity of the 48th WorldSkills Competition, this institutional cooperation program aligns with the development goals of the World Skills Innovation Center. It integrates the competition standards and talent philosophy of the WorldSkills Competition into professional teaching, transforms the technical key points of the WorldSkills Competition into daily course content, and cultivates technical and skilled talent who are familiar with international skills norms and possess high-level practical abilities. Through this cooperative program, SUES will actively participate in the transformation of global skills standards and innovation in skills practice, echoing the conference theme of Excellent Skills Empowering High-Quality Urban Development, helping Shanghai build itself into an international highland for vocational skills training operations, and contributing to the world skills innovation
