Ye Zhihao, executive director of Guangzhou High Genius Dynamics Co, said China's participation in WorldSkills has brought benefits to the nation's cultivation and evaluation of skilled people.

"The updating of WorldSkills competition events has pushed forward the emergence and development of new professionals. For us employers, WorldSkills champions or contestants are welcomed at our companies," he said, adding that his company has recruited more than 10 Chinese WorldSkills competitors since 2017.

However, experts are still calling for better and fairer treatment for skilled workers in terms of payment, career promotion and social status.

Zhang Rui, deputy director of the WorldSkills Competition China Research Center in Tianjin, said that though vocational schools have open attitudes to cooperating with companies to help their students better adapt to market needs, the cooperation should be further deepened in curriculum design and with more investment.

"The public still prefers academic achievement rather than vocational education, thus it still requires efforts from governments, schools and companies to raise the social status of skilled students and skilled workers," she said, adding that the widening regional gap in vocational education needs to be tackled.

"The gap lies in economic development imbalance. The provinces or areas with stronger economies and manufacturing power, such as Guangdong province, are usually more open-minded and channel more effort into cultivating skilled workers," Zhang said.

Ye Zhihao, the executive director, added: "The manufacturing industry is the foundation for the nation's development, and requires diversified talent ranging from knowledge-based researchers to the skilled people who can deftly operate and maintain precision and high-tech machines."