From September 22nd to 27th, the 48th WorldSkills Competition (WSC) will be held in the Chinese mainland for the very first time. China is sending 71 competitors to the competition, covering all skills. Since China first took part in the WSC in 2011, competitors from Guangdong have won a total of 35 gold, 16 silver and 14 bronze medals, as well as 26 Medallions for Excellence, with the province ranking first nationwide in both gold medals and total medals.

In 2025, Guangdong established young technician workstations at 53 training bases for the WSC, integrating project development, technical problem-solving, commercialization of results and talent development into a single system. This has gradually turned the gold-medal expertise once concentrated in a small number of training bases into talent development resources accessible to a much wider group.

In Shenzhen's Shuibei, the country's largest gold and jewelry distribution hub, Guo Zhipeng and his team are methodically serving customers seeking customized gold jewelry. In 2018, Guo competed in the Jewellery skill at the 45th WorldSkills Competition, ranking fourth nationwide to enter the national training team. He then ranked second nationwide in the national team's selection to narrow the field from 11 competitors to 5, and was awarded the title of National Technical Expert. In 2021, he and several other top Chinese competitors in Jewellery jointly founded Master Goldsmith Workshop, with the core goal of turning the WSC technical standards, training systems and practical results into a business ecosystem tailored to market needs.

"At the WSC, competitors strive for precision to within 0.1 millimeters. That's the ultimate requirement in a competitive setting. But in the commercial sector, the biggest challenge is not precision, but controlling material loss during gold processing," Guo said. Drawing on his extensive technical experience, he optimized the precision standards and processing methods used in the WSC and developed a material cutting calculation formula suited to the market, bringing the gold processing loss rate below 0.8‰, far lower than the industry average.