WorldSkills Champion Ivy Chen prepares to welcome the world to her hometown

A new video to showcasing WorldSkills Shanghai 2022 includes a scene where Champions Trust representative Ivy Chen walks through the empty cabin of a passenger jet.

It is a poignant reminder of a world on hold, and especially the impact of COVID-19 on millions of young people like Ivy.

After competing successfully at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017, Ivy continued her career in Restaurant Service as a flight attendant at China Eastern Airlines.

With most international travel grounded for over a year by the pandemic, she has witnessed its impact first hand.

“There’s no denying that we all have faced new opportunities and suffered from many difficulties in 2020,” she says.

It has also made her reflect on how the world is interconnected, as it tackles a disease that has cost millions of lives and threatened the livelihoods and education of many more, especially the young.

“The epidemic has given us a deeper understanding of the concept of community,” Ivy says.

“The promotion of vaccines is the sharing of global wisdom, the supply of masks is the sharing of global productivity, and the transportation of materials is the sharing of global air capacity.”

She also worked with colleagues flying international relief flights, taking supplies and medical experts to countries where the disease was most severe.

The latest video features Ivy demonstrating her many skills, including setting out dining rooms, mixing cocktails, and tasting wine, celebrating the beautiful hospitality that awaits the world in Shanghai for the 46th WorldSkills Competition.

The empty airline seats, she hopes, will soon fill up with international visitors again, as China gets ready to host event.

Born and raised in Shanghai, Ivy, Champions Trust representative for Asia, is particularly excited to welcome guests to her hometown.

“Especially, I’m looking forward to meeting our WorldSkills Competitors,” she says.

“I think it would be thrilled for me to make friends with them, learn from each other, share and exchange our knowledge and skills, and widen everybody’s horizons.”

For everyone, her message is, “I hope we can overcome the epidemic and fly together to the places where we want to go and meet the people we want to meet.”