Helping Czechia’s youth value skills and build a global perspective

“We believe that if we can give our young people an international experience and help them learn from international difference, they will be more able to help make our region stronger.”

These are the words of Vlasta Volak, CEO of Nexus and architect of DRESS UP & STAY HOME, an innovative development programme designed to equip the young people of Czechia with global insights and perspectives, so they can become better citizens and future leaders.

In September, DRESS UP & STAY HOME will take 83 of the region’s young students to China for a unique educational and cultural experience. They will spend one week at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 where they will witness the best young talent from around the world compete in 64 skills. They will learn more about the technical and life skills needed for future careers, and they will hear from global thought leaders about how skills underpin communities and industries, and how they can be used to support human development.

For many of these students, this trip will be the first time they have travelled out of Czechia, so the programme is also designed to give them deeper cultural insights. As well as their visit to the Competition, they will spend a week in Beijing learning more about Chinese politics and society, to appreciate the value of diverse and innovative thinking.

Mr Volak describes how the students have been selected. He says, “We were not just looking for those students with certain levels of academic attainment. We look for those who are most proactive and who show entrepreneurial behaviours. These young people are already curious to learn, and we can now help them look beyond our country for inspiration and insights.”

Accompanying these young people will be policymakers and industry leaders from Pilsen and across Czechia who will visit the Competition and WorldSkills Conference 2026 to see how other countries and regions are developing young talent, and to benchmark their own Technical and Vocational Education and Training systems. They will also be able to learn from global best practice and skills strategies.

Katerina Chabova is Operating Manager for WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 at the Pilsen Regional Authority and a Member of the Executive Board of DRESS UP & STAY HOME. She will be leading the delegation and reflects, “We are excited to take such a broad cohort out to China. It will help increase our internationalization of the region in the short term through the ministers, and it allows us to invest in it for the long term with our young people who may go on to become our future leaders and politicians.”

The programme is built on a simple principle that when you combine global thinking with local action, it leads to regional wellbeing and growth. It draws its name from the Haida Nation, indigenous to North America. When Haida elder Florence Edenshaw was asked what one should do for self-respect, she replied, "Dress up and stay home”. The idea being that if you can educate yourself as much as you can beyond your home, you can then use it to thrive locally. 

The programme is structured to ensure that it is not simply an excursion but a genuine learning experience. Before the delegation departs, each student works through a development framework to help them define their goals for the trip. For six months before the trip, they receive dedicated support from Team Leaders to consider how the programme could best support their personal and professional growth.

On their return, students will then attend the Dress Up Stay Home Conference hosted at the Techmania Science Centre in Pilsen. At that event, they will present their findings and experiences to an audience of fellow students, teachers, local industry leaders, policymakers, and even international ambassadors.

Founded in 2025, DRESS UP & STAY HOME is still a relatively new concept. Last year, the team took 70 students from 35 schools to Expo 2025 Osaka in Japan. As well as exposing the students to Japanese economic and cultural insights, the delegation and CzechInvest had an opportunity to present the programme to those Japanese companies with a strong presence in the Pilsen region to highlight the investment they are making in Czechia’s young people and building a highly qualified and internationalized future workforce.

The success of this trip combined with the huge interest in this year’s visit to WorldSkills Shanghai 2026, is generating fast-growing support for the scheme. Ms Chabova says, “Our local politicians are taking this programme incredibly seriously. With the University of West Bohemia, they have created Nexus to deliberately increase our international insights and drive local growth. It has now caught the attention of our national Minister for Education and the European Union as an effective way to invest in long-term regional growth.”

David Hoey, CEO of WorldSkills International, applauds the programme, saying, “This is a remarkable initiative, and it reflects exactly the kind of investment young people deserve. No one understands how to reach a country’s youth better than that country itself. Our role is to build platforms that put skilled talent in the spotlight at the highest level and then support our partners to make that spotlight shine even further.”

Learn more about how WorldSkills is marking World Youth Skills Day.