WORLDSKILLS
IAPMO is proud to be a Global Partner of WorldSkills
What is WorldSkills?
WorldSkills is the global hub for skills excellence and development. Through international cooperation and development between industry, government, organizations, and institutions, WorldSkills promotes the benefits of and need for skilled professionals through grass-roots community projects, skill competitions, and knowledge exchange. WorldSkills shows how important skills education and training is for youth, industries and society by challenging young professionals around the world to become the best in the skill of their choice.
From experienced Experts, to enthusiastic young Champions starting out on their professional career paths: every member of the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials plays an integral part in protecting the health of people globally. Our partnership with WorldSkills is a conduit to connecting leading talents and new ideas – from international vocational education and training sectors – with critical water and sanitation-related issues, across the world.
DUBROVNIK, CROATIA
IAPMO Celebrates 10 Years of WorldSkills Global Industry Partnership
October 16, 2025 — IAPMO®, a global team of experts engaging industry and government for a safer built environment, and its charitable foundation, the International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Foundation (IWSH®), are proud to celebrate 10 years as a WorldSkills Global Industry Partner. IAPMO and IWSH celebrated the milestone this week at the annual General Assembly of WorldSkills International Members in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Since joining the partnership in 2015, IAPMO has worked with WorldSkills to strengthen the role of industry, education, and government in developing a skilled workforce for the future. Together, these organizations champion the plumbing and mechanical trades as essential to public health, safety, and sustainability — reinforcing IAPMO’s mission to shape the built environment through collaboration and informed expertise.
“Marking a decade as a WorldSkills Global Industry Partner is a significant milestone that underscores IAPMO’s deep commitment to advancing the plumbing and mechanical industries worldwide,” IAPMO CEO Dave Viola said. “Together with WorldSkills and through initiatives like IWSH Plumbing Champions, we are not only training and supporting the next generation of skilled professionals, but we’re also demonstrating the essential role these trades play in protecting public health, advancing sustainability, and building stronger, more resilient communities.”
This milestone also coincides with the 75th anniversary of WorldSkills, founded in Madrid, Spain, in 1950. Emerging from postwar reconstruction, WorldSkills helped rebuild economies by engaging young people in vocational skills competitions that set new global standards of excellence. Today, WorldSkills connects two-thirds of the world’s population across 89 countries and regions, aiming to help 100 million young people advance through skills training by 2030.
Through IWSH, IAPMO has expanded its role beyond competition sponsorship to mobilize plumbing professionals and apprentices in demonstration projects that deliver clean water, safe sanitation, and career development opportunities for young tradespeople. These collaborations showcase how skilled trades improve lives while strengthening community resilience.
“IAPMO, with the IWSH Foundation, allows us to do projects in a do-good way around the world where we can capitalize on the skill set of people who are at the top of their game, specialists and experts,” WorldSkills CEO David Hoey said. “You have enriched and made our organization better and stronger by being part of it.”
The 48th WorldSkills Competition will take place Sept. 22-27, 2026, in Shanghai, China.
WORLDSKILLS 2025
New WPC Africa workgroup promotes regional collaboration and
further Global Partnership at WorldSkills Africa 2025
A first-of-its-kind workshop for African World Plumbing Council (WPC) member organizations was held alongside the WorldSkills Africa 2025 capacity-building program for Plumbing, hosted at the Fountain Gate Craft & Trades School in Lusaka, Zambia, from Sept. 1-5. This workshop assembled a team of proactive WPC representatives from Zambia, South Africa, and Rwanda for a first in-person meeting of WPC member organizations on the continent.
The workshop aimed to lay foundations for a new WPC Africa committee, strengthening collaboration in the plumbing and WASH sectors and helping to drive strategic development in the region.
IAPMO and the International Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Foundation (IWSH) played a prominent role throughout the week, furthering their global mission of workforce development and social impact under IAPMO’s ten-year Global Industry Partnership with WorldSkills International. IAPMO helped support training activities and competition standards development for the WorldSkills Africa capacity-building component of the event — working together with participating plumbing instructors from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Namibia and Ethiopia — while IWSH also introduced a new collaboration with the Rothenberger Tools for Life Foundation (T4L) which provided additional hands-on plumbing masterclasses to the WorldSkills group. Further to this, T4L instructors ran a parallel training workshop for more than 50 local trainees of the host organization PAZA (the Plumbers Association of Zambia) and donated all tools to these participants at the end of that activity. These various training sessions gained widespread attention via the T4L instructors’ social media channels (@nample and @thepeakyplumber), reaching more than a million views during the event.
The WPC and IAPMO also hosted a mid-week evening reception celebrating all WorldSkills Africa 2025 partners and participants, and at the conclusion of the week’s events, each WPC Africa attendee received a commemorative Lusaka 2025 IWSH challenge coin.
This initiative has created a platform for future collaboration between WPC member organizations in the region, with potential outcomes including formation of new national plumbing associations, development of codes and standards, and TVET system enhancement in partnership with WorldSkills Africa stakeholders. The newly formed WPC Africa workgroup will begin meeting regularly online starting in October 2025 and target their next in-person workshop to be co-located with another appropriate plumbing industry event in Africa in 2026.
WORLDSKILLS
EXPERT FOCUS
In the months that lead up to WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017, IAPMO published a series of interviews with international Experts from the Plumbing and Heating competition:
Collectively, as Global Partners, we see WorldSkills as our portal into the world that is establishing a value for skills as the global currency, and building the international skilled workforce. We can have a much greater impact through the development of best practices and standards that can be leveraged around the world in all industry sectors. Our future economic health is dependent on the skilled workforce and that’s why we are here: simply put, there is no economy without skilled workers.
IAPMO WORLDSKILLS
PHOTO GALLERIES
WorldSkills Africa 2025
Workshop for African World Plumbing Council (WPC) member organizations was held alongside the WorldSkills Africa 2025
WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017
Presentation of WPC Medallions to Plumbing and Heating Competitors at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017
WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017
Plumbing and Heating competition at WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017
WorldSkills São Paulo 2015
Plumbing and Heating competition at WorldSkills São Paulo 2015
WorldSkills São Paulo 2015
Plumbing and Heating Experts dinner at WorldSkills São Paulo 2015
