Foshan Future Skills International Challenge was held in December

On December 10 - 12, 2021, the 2021 Belt & Road and BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition - Foshan Future Skills International Challenge was held. Future Skills is an initiative of WorldSkills Russia aimed at advanced training of personnel for high-tech production in a transforming economy, launched in 2015.The BRICS Future Skills Challenge has been held since 2017 and is organized by the BRICS member states. The first competition was held in China. Since 2018, a team from Russia with the support of COEX has taken part in the UAV Operating & Aerial Robotics Championship organized by China. The winner of the face-to-face championship in 2018 was Ilya Khukhuni, a student at the Higher School of Economics, and in 2019, Vladimir Voronin, a student at MEPhI. In view of the pandemic, the championship switched to a distance format, which ultimately made it possible to expand the geography of its participants. In 2020, the winner from Russia was Artyom Vasyunik, a student at MISiS.

In 2021, as part of the BRICS Future Skills Challenge the Russian part of the competition was held with the support of WorldSkills Russia and the industrial partner, COEX (Copter Express Technologies). Participants from the BRICS countries completed the Drone Assembling & Configuring and Programming competition tasks in real time from distributed sites from their countries. The Russian part of the competition was held in a remote-full-time format in the F12 Aerial Robotics “Flying Robotics” and F1 “UAV Operating” skills.

According to the results of the Foshan Future Skills International Challenge 2021, the prize places from the Russian side were distributed as follows:

1st place: combined team of the Moscow college of railway and city transport and the Lyceum "The Second School";

1st place: team of the Institute for the Development of Education of the Sakhalin Region and the Razdolnoye school, Korsakov;

2nd place: St. Petersburg Technical College of Management and Commerce;

3rd place: team of school No. 3 in Novy Urengoy and Gazprom technical school in Novy Urengoy;

3rd place Khabarovsk technical school of technosphere safety and industrial technologies.

The Organizing Committee expresses its special gratitude to the Chief Experts - Elena Zelyaeva and Eduard Kuznetsov for an exemplary organized distributed championship, the Flying Robotics Competency Manager Tatyana Karpova, International Expert Svetlana Solomatnikova, COEX Company and its General Director Oleg Ponfilenk, Worldskills Russia represented by Alina Doskanova for their immense contribution. The Organizing committee is grateful for the high trust in its organizing skills and expert community expressed by China Section of BRICS Business Council Skills Development Working Group and wishes to highlight the support of Dr. Liu Zhengying, Chairman of China Section of BRICS Business Council SDWG, President of International Alliance of Skills Development, Executive Chairman of Organizing Committee for Belt & Road and BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition, President of Belt & Road and BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Training Center and President of BRICS Academy of Skills Development and Technology Innovation (Xiamen), as well as Luke Du, the Deputy Manager of Organizing Committee for Belt & Road and BRICS Skills Development and Technology Innovation Competition.

COEX, as an industrial partner of the Future Skills F1 and F12 competencies, sees the importance of the BRICS countries working together in the development and testing of new tools for the development of vocational training systems and steadily supports and promotes the expansion of international communications for the exchange of experience, knowledge and best practices and methodologies. The Aerial Robotics community is supported by COEX and spans 32 countries and regions. This contributes to the strengthening of international horizontal links between industry experts and educational institutions. The format of interaction includes a system of competitions and trainings, joint educational programs, skill camps, design, and research activities on the topic of flying robotics.