WorldSkills as a catalyst for system-level change

Background

Since its inception in 1950, WorldSkills has been committed to improving and advancing vocational education and training. WorldSkills and its Members collaborate around the central asset of its biennial skills competitions. Together, they work to:

• Raise the profile of skills among young people
• Develop global skills standards
• Conduct shared research
• Exchange best practices
• Promote the value of skills for economic growth and personal success

WorldSkills Vision 2025

WorldSkills has identified three broad strategic goals as part of WorldSkills Vision 2025:

1. Raise ambition and opportunity in TVET for young people, employers, and societies
2. Enhance the quality of TVET provision through stronger connections to labor markets, employers, and economies
3. Help build the organizational capability of WorldSkills and the global competitiveness of its Members through skills

Impact Statement Development Survey 2021

Given the WorldSkills Vision and its strategic goals for 2025, it is vital to understand and identify the potential indicators and gaps in how WorldSkills enables Members to make system-level changes. In 2021, WorldSkills conducted the Impact Statement Development Survey among its Member countries and regions.

Survey Details

• 50 Members participated
• Completion rate for questions on WorldSkills impact: 58% to 92% (average 78.5%)

About the executive summary

To get a better understanding of how WorldSkills Members utilize their membership to affect changes at the individual, institutional, and systemic levels, and to demonstrate the untapped potential for WorldSkills to be the catalyst for system-level changes, the WorldSkills Global Research Council jointly produced an executive summary of the research analysis on the Impact Statement Development Survey 2021.

The analysis was conducted by the Centre for Skills, Knowledge, and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) at the University of Oxford.

The full report was published in October 2024.

Key Findings

• Analysis shows micro-level changes and impacts have occurred among Member countries and regions
• Significant potential to extend these impacts to drive changes at the meso- and macro-levels
• Two follow-up interviews elaborated on higher-level impacts of WorldSkills
• Potential identified for WorldSkills to create a skills-led ecosystem for comprehensive and systemic changes