WorldSkills Champion highlights role of skills at UNIDO Global Industry Summit

As part of a day dedicated to the role of young people as drivers of sustainable growth and industrial transformation, WorldSkills Champions Trust representative for Africa, Abraham Mundengo, shared his story at the biennial General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the 21st session of the event took place from 23 to 27 November at the King Abdulaziz Conference Center in Riyadh. The event is UNIDO’s supreme policymaking body, bringing together its 173 Member States and enabling high-level dialogue and cooperation among governments, policymakers, industry leaders, experts, and innovators.

Held alongside the Global Industry Summit 2025, the event featured thematic days dedicated to investments and partnerships, women’s economic empowerment, and the role of youth in driving sustainable industrial transformation.

Abraham took part in the session “Future ready – Unlocking the global talent pool” on 26 November. The discussion focused on how strategic investments in skills, innovation, and entrepreneurship – key pillars of the UNIDO Youth Framework – can empower young people to drive industrial transformation across regions.

The panel was followed by “Youth Speak: Lived Experience,” where Abraham shared his skills journey, offering firsthand perspectives on how skills development and mentorship shaped his path.

Looking back on his early experiences helping his father in his plumbing business, Abraham said he never realized that a skill could lead him toward entrepreneurship and building sustainable value chains. “Such is a challenge in many other middle-income countries, including Zambia,” he added, “where youth have little interest in skills that could change their economic perspectives and ultimately make them job creators, not job seekers, by venturing into entrepreneurship.”

Abraham called on industry to expand paid apprenticeship opportunities that equip students with industry-ready skills; on policymakers to strengthen dual-education systems and address gaps in their TVET frameworks; and on parents to support young people in pursuing careers aligned with their interests.

Over the four days, Abraham represented WorldSkills at this important gathering. Reflecting on the discussions, he said, “An important outcome of the Conference was that skills development – in the context of industrialization, but also overall – can only be done with the youth, for the youth, and around the youth. We have a voice in how we want to achieve skills development and how we can contribute to the 2030 Agenda. It was encouraging that the Conference called upon young people to share their ideas.”

UNIDO has been a long-standing partner of the WorldSkills movement and an active member of the WorldSkills Conference Coalition helping to shape WorldSkills Conference 2026 in Shanghai, China. WorldSkills International and UNIDO recently signed a Joint Declaration to strengthen cooperation in supporting skills development worldwide.