Eleven young French people will represent construction professions at the WorldSkills global competition, from September 22 to 27 in Shanghai. The CCCA-BTP has strengthened their preparation.
There France will be represented in ten construction trades during the 48th WorldSkills global skills competition, held in Shanghai from September 22 to 27. Eleven young construction and public works competitors will take part in the eventwith the support of CCCA-BTP, which strengthened their preparation thanks to a specific program ranging from technical training to physical preparation and professional English.
For six days, Shanghai will become the world capital of professions. Some 1,400 competitors from 65 countries will compete in 64 professional disciplines, in front of an expected audience of 350,000 visitors. © Magnific
Eleven French competitors in ten professions
L’French construction team has ten professions for eleven competitors, with one pair engaged in reinforced concrete construction.
The French selection is made up of:
| Job | Competitor(s) | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Tiles | Nathanaël Ball | Great East |
| Frame | Benjamin Blegean | Great East |
| Reinforced concrete construction | Valentin Etcheverry and Mathéo Graff | Normandy |
| Digital construction | Aude Castanheira | Burgundy-Franche-Comté |
| Electrical installation | Swann Clamart | Loire region |
| Masonry | Emilien Gallot | South Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur |
| Carpentry | Thibault Landais | New Aquitaine |
| Painting and decoration | Yann Mercier | Loire region |
| Plastering and dry construction | Enzo Delpech | Brittany |
| Plumbing and heating | Louis Sontot | Great East |
These young people were selected at the end of the French WorldSkills course and then integrated theFrench careers team. Between the 2025 national competition and the global deadline in Shanghai, their preparation was supplemented by a specific system intended for construction professions.
Fifteen days of additional preparation per profession
Called “1, 2, 3… podium”, this program is supported by the building and public works branches, designed and financed by CCCA-BTP And deployed with WorldSkills France. The objective is to work beyond just technical mastery of the profession. Competitors thus benefit from fifteen additional days of WorldSkills center internship or in training centers, in addition to four weeks of technical training planned by WorldSkills France.
The system also provides training between the different courses. Each competitor can continue to work individually in a training establishment, a company or at home, with support adapted to their needs. The preparation can even be extended since the program allows the professional development period to be extended beyond the fifteen additional days initially planned, up to three months at most.
The challenge is to allow young people to multiply training situations before facing their international competitors and to get as close as possible to the conditions of the world event.
Technical preparation, but also physical and linguistic
The program is not limited to professional gestures. Indeed, several complementary components have been planned in order to prepare competitors for the particular environment of an international competition:
– international exchanges can in particular be organized in France with foreign competitors and their experts – these meetings allow young French people to confront other working methods and to put themselves in conditions close to those they will encounter in Shanghai;
– learning professional English constitutes another area of preparation: it must allow competitors to better understand and express themselves in the English-speaking environment of the competition, in addition to the training possibly offered by WorldSkills France and focused on technical vocabulary;
– Speaking is also part of the system since young people can benefit from preparation for public expression and media training in order to anticipate their exchanges with journalists and the public during the competition.
– Finally, individualized physical preparation can be offered when the competitor’s profession justifies it, complementing the collective sessions organized as part of the WorldSkills preparation.
At the 9th edition of the European Skills Competition, organized from September 9 to 13, 2025 in Herning, Denmark, it was an exceptional harvest of medals for the construction pole of the French Trades Team, with no less than nine young people from the construction industry on the podium. © Vincent Bourdon
A showcase for construction professions
Beyond individual performances, construction professionals see in WorldSkills a way to concretely show the diversity as well as the level of qualification of their professions. There competition should in particular make it possible to present the construction professions to a young audiencewhile the sector faces significant skills needs. Highlighting the career paths of young professionals and apprenticeships therefore constitutes one of the challenges of this participation.
“This global trade competition in Shanghai is an exceptional showcase to introduce the thousands of expected young visitors to the excellence of our building and public works trades. It is also a great opportunity to highlight the unfailing commitment of construction professionals to prepare our young people to climb onto the steps of the world podium, to promote our country, but also team spirit, performance, passion and excellence in the practice of our construction professions.“, underlines Ludovick Lefebvre, president of CCCA-BTP.
For professional organizations, the challenge is also to show that apprenticeship can constitute a path of excellence towards qualification and professional success.
