WorldSkills and Stanley Black & Decker celebrate a 10-year partnership

Stanley Black & Decker is the world’s largest tools manufacturer and has long been a global pioneer of skills. For the last ten years, it has forged a strong and valuable connection with the WorldSkills community as a Global Premium Partner.

To mark a decade of skills excellence together, representatives from Stanley Black & Decker and WorldSkills joined for a special ceremony and certificate presentation. It became both a chance to reflect on past successes and commit to an even greater future together.

David Hoey, CEO of WorldSkills International, thanked Stanley Black & Decker for agreeing to be a Global Premium Partner in 2014, only a year after first getting involved in the community as an Event Sponsor at WorldSkills Leipzig 2013.

He reminded them how passionate they had been and how quick to get involved, saying “Even before the ink was dry on our agreement, you had stepped up to be Master Sponsor of WorldSkills São Paulo 2015, setting the tone for what has become an incredibly valuable and productive partnership between our two organizations.”

He continued, “My greatest hope is that, as we mark this very special anniversary, we can deliver many more initiatives like this in the future. We can use our collective strengths to persuade national and international leaders to invest in skills and inspire more young people to consider skills as a way to unleash their potential and – literally - help shape our world.”

During the event, held on 13 September at Eurexpo Lyon, the site of the 47th WorldSkills Competition, David presented a special certificate to Marty Guay, Vice President, Business Development at Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. The certificate was both an acknowledgement of the milestone and a signal of intention to do even more impactful work together in the future, united by a shared vision that skills improve our world.

After the certificate was presented, Marty shared his happiness and commitment to the partnership saying, “Our 10th anniversary shows the importance of this movement to build trades capacity and build skills locally, regionally, and globally. There isn’t a place in the world that doesn’t need more trades. Together, we’ve activated the passions, hopes, and dreams of young people. They are the future who will build the world.”

Over the last ten years, Stanley Black & Decker has been a faithful supporter of the work of WorldSkills. Its iconic precision tools and equipment have been a regular fixture at WorldSkills Competitions. Its suite of world-famous brands can be found in over 20 skill competitions and, once events are over, thousands of its tools are donated to local schools and skills centres, leaving a fantastic legacy in the host country.

In 2022 to 2023, WorldSkills and Stanley Black & Decker delivered a hugely successful capacity building programme together thanks to its Empower Makers Global Impact Challenge – a grant established to skill up the next generation of professionals in construction and manufacturing.

The grant went towards a year-long programme carefully designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of educators in Uganda through mentorship and knowledge-sharing, and ending with a hugely successful bootcamp hosted in Kamuli in May 2023. The impact report from the programme showed that not only did it build capacity among educators there, but it lifted the ambitions of students.

Over the years, Stanley Black & Decker has also contributed insights and expertise to international discussions about the future of skills and ways build more resilient and effective skills systems.

DeWalt, one of Stanley Black & Decker’s leading brands, and WorldSkills chose to use WorldSkills Lyon 2024 to release the findings from a recent global survey of young trade professionals, that showed their strong passion for their trade was significantly influenced by social media despite encountering social stigmas around their career choices. 

Stanley Black & Decker also played a lead role at WorldSkills Conference 2024 where Marty spoke at a number of sessions, including the closing plenary where, alongside other thought leaders, he helped define a new global agenda that prioritizes skills development and skills excellence.

With WorldSkills Lyon 2024 now wrapped, both partners look towards the 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai and beyond, to hopefully another successful decade of impact together.

Read more about Stanley Black & Decker’s work.