On May 5, the National Vocational Students Skills Competition 2019 kicked off in Tianjin, gathering skilled contestants from all over the world. Among them, 16 contestants joined the International Tournament of Automated Assembly Line Installation and Testing, a sub-division of the competition. Participants came from China, Spain, Portugal, Pakistan, Tanzania, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.

The tournament started at 9 a.m., and the 16 contestants, divided into 8 teams, were required to complete a process, from feeding raw materials, assembling, processing, sorting through to delivery of the final product in 3.5 hours. According to Wen Guoqiang, chief referee of the tournament and teacher at Tianjin Sino-German University of Applied Sciences, this tournament “is a test of the contestants’ capacity to handle modern industrial equipment, including machinery installation and pneumatic fittings, as well as their planning skills, safety awareness, energy-saving awareness, and professionalism.”

Hugo, a Portuguese contestant, said he had gained a great deal from his period of study at the Luban Workshop, which was established in the Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal in Portugal in December 2018. He added that he hoped to have the chance to study in Tianjin one day to learn more about state-of-the-art technologies and skills.