The IAPMO Group is excited to announce a renewed four-year Global Industry Partnership agreement with WorldSkills, a global hub for skills excellence and development. The new agreement precedes further collaboration for the next two biennial international WorldSkills Competitions, which will be hosted in China and France, respectively: WorldSkills Shanghai 2021 and WorldSkills Lyon 2023.

IAPMO first connected with the WorldSkills International movement in 2013, as a Founding Partner of the WorldSkills Foundation, an initiative that brought forward new skills projects and partnerships to create additional value and benefits for all WorldSkills stakeholders. Following this introduction — and a platform that helped develop the international Community Plumbing Challenge program that IAPMO has progressed to this day via its own International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Foundation (IWSH) — IAPMO stepped forward to become a WorldSkills Global Industry Partner in 2015.

“As an organization that shares our values and vision, WorldSkills International is proud to continue working with IAPMO as a Global Partner,” said Alexander Amiri, director of sponsorship and partnership for WorldSkills International. “Their commitment to the highest standards in plumbing and sanitation is as essential today as it was when IAPMO was founded nearly a century ago.”

A major highlight of IAPMO’s WorldSkills Global Industry Partnership so far was the Plumbing and Heating “Champions” project delivered at the most recent international competition, hosted in Russia — WorldSkills Kazan 2019. This initiative — an effort that involved the practical, hands-on input of more than 100 skilled participants representing more than 30 countries — added a new and unique corporate social responsibility aspect to the flagship WorldSkills event.

“IAPMO’s belief in sustainability and WorldSkills Vision 2025 was underlined at WorldSkills Kazan 2019, when Experts and young competitors from Plumbing and Heating came together to create a much-need washroom for a local orphanage,” Amiri added. “Today, we also believe that health and hygiene are at the heart of the fight against COVID-19 in which the skills supported by WorldSkills and IAPMO are highly important.”

“Our Plumbing and Heating ‘Champions’ project at WorldSkills Kazan 2019 was presented with the tagline ‘Skills Change Lives’; that is exactly how we at IAPMO view our ongoing collaboration with WorldSkills, in terms of the life-changing impact that quality plumbing practices and skills development can provide in societies all over the world, particularly where this skills development focuses on motivated young people starting out on their career paths and professional journeys,” IAPMO COO Dave Viola said.

“Plumbing is a vocation, a trade, a skill that provides people and communities with access to water and safe sanitation; it provides them with the ability to wash and clean, and to maintain hygiene. Through the global coronavirus pandemic, so many of us have witnessed and experienced this critical issue firsthand,” Viola added. “During this crisis, IAPMO has continued to rally for the international plumbing industry, and the role and the rights of plumbers as essential, front-line workers. Likewise, we commend WorldSkills for championing the same cause through its #SkillsKeepMoving campaign. We look forward to re-emerging together, stronger, and continuing to develop new ways to connect our skilled networks and events to support communities in need into the future.”

Learn more about the WorldSkills “Skills Keep Moving” campaign at www.worldskills.org/what/projects/skillskeepmoving/#video.

Learn more about WorldSkills Global Industry Partners at www.worldskills.org/partners.