ILO Urges Skills Overhaul to Help Workers Thrive as Technology Transforms Their Jobs

The ILO is contributing its expertise in skills development, decent work and dialogue between governments, employers and workers to a broad programme at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026.

Learning new skills can open the door to better work, but access to those opportunities matters as much as the training itself. At WorldSkills Shanghai 2026, the International Labour Organization (ILO) called for education and training systems that respond to technological, economic and environmental changes and ensure their benefits reach workers across society.

Speaking at the event's opening, ILO Assistant Director-General for Corporate Services Hao Bin placed inclusion at the centre of that responsibility, describing skills systems as a foundation for decent work and social justice. His message connected innovation with a practical concern for people's futures: progress in training must create opportunities for everyone, including those at risk of being excluded from a changing labour market.

Training That Responds to Changing Jobs

The ILO is contributing its expertise in skills development, decent work and dialogue between governments, employers and workers to a broad programme at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026. Discussions examine how education and training can respond to changing workplace demands, covering green and digital skills, training finance, recognition of skills, and the future of technical and vocational education and training, known as TVET.

These conversations connect the needs of individual workers with the challenges facing businesses and economies. Training systems need to help people prepare for changing jobs and give enterprises the capabilities to improve productivity and introduce new ideas, with decent work remaining central to decisions about where resources go and which skills receive attention.

A New Guide Connects Industry and Education

The ILO launched a guide titled Next generation sector skills bodies: Driving productivity, innovation, decent work and social justice, drawing on experience from 18 countries. It calls for Sector Skills Bodies that can respond more quickly to change, use evidence to guide decisions and sustain their work over time, strengthening the connection between industry and the institutions responsible for education and training.

Sector Skills Bodies bring governments, employers and workers together to identify the skills needed within particular industries. Stronger links between these groups can help countries anticipate demand and prepare workers and enterprises for changes in employment, giving training providers a clearer understanding of the capabilities businesses need and the opportunities workers should be able to access.

Hao Bin stressed that employers and workers need a continuing role in shaping skills priorities. Their involvement can help ensure investment responds to real workplace conditions, with decisions informed by the people who run enterprises and those whose livelihoods depend on the quality and relevance of training.

ILO and WorldSkills Strengthen Cooperation

The ILO and WorldSkills International signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the conference, formalizing an established collaboration focused on skills development, productivity, decent work and social justice. The agreement creates a framework for cooperation across occupational standards, systems for classifying skills, stronger TVET institutions, research, knowledge development, capacity building and global policy discussions.

The partnership gives both organizations a shared basis for supporting training systems as the demands of work evolve. Across the conference discussions, the new guide and the cooperation agreement, the ILO's message is consistent: skills development should help enterprises adapt and give workers a fair opportunity to build secure, productive working lives, with governments, employers and workers shaping that progress together.