Shanghai, China, Sept. 22, 2026 (Lusa) – At the age of 15, when many of her peers were still trying to work out what they wanted to do in the future, Leonor Silva, who is representing Portugal in hairdressing at WorldSkills, decided to learn a trade and enter the job market straight away.
«I was really keen to work and I liked the beauty industry. That's more or less why I decided to choose a vocational course,» the 20-year-old from Santa Maria da Feira explained to the Lusa news agency on the eve of taking part in what is the world's largest skills competition, which is taking place this week in Shanghai, China's economic «capital».
Leonor began a hairdressing course in 2021, which lasted around two and a half years.
«I started working in the sector straight away. And then, when I finished the course, I carried on working,» she said.
The young woman is included in a Portuguese team comprising ten participants, representing seven trades: industrial robotics, mobile robotics, mechatronics, welding, industrial control, hairdressing and CNC machining.
Portugal has, in fact, been involved in international skills competitions since their inception: together with Spain, it launched the competition in Madrid in 1950.
The team's composition also reflects the diversity of today's vocational education, which is increasingly linked to technologically advanced fields where there is a demand for skilled workers.
Gustavo Seia, leader of WorldSkills Portugal – a body included in the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP) – believes that Portugal continues to face a skills shortage in these areas.
«Our country still lacks a skilled workforce,» he told Lusa, attributing part of the problem to an «overvaluation of the scientific and humanities streams», which for years led many families to prioritise university education over vocational training.
According to him, although perceptions have improved, «there is work to be done» to put an end to the stigma associated with this educational pathway.
«These professions are predominantly manual», but they require «highly skilled» workers and should also be valued in terms of pay, he added.
Vocational training does not, however, mean ruling out university.
Among the ten Portuguese nationals present in Shanghai are young people who have gone on to pursue higher education in the fields in which they began their vocational training.
This is the case of Daniel Silva, aged 21, who started out in mechatronics through vocational education, completed levels 4 and 5 of his training, and is now studying Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Porto Higher Institute of Engineering (ISEP).
Daniel competes in mobile robotics, a field that combines programming, computer vision and autonomous systems capable of performing tasks such as transporting and handling objects.
He believes that vocational training gave him a foundation to pursue studies in a related field and does not see the two paths as mutually exclusive alternatives.
Seia emphasised precisely that completing vocational training does not prevent subsequent access to higher education.
«There are cases, even within this team that is here with us in Shanghai, where students are already pursuing higher education in the fields of their chosen professions,» he stated.
For the leader of WorldSkills Portugal, one of the main advantages remains, however, access to the labour market.
«The trades we focus on are those with high employability,» he said, noting that a young person who completes this type of training has good prospects of finding work, even if they decide to continue their studies at the same time.
It was precisely the possibility of becoming independent at a very young age that appealed to Leonor.
«I wanted to start building a career,» she said. «I wanted to start making a life for myself straight away.»
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Lusa
