Flavia Nakaayi (R), a Ugandan nurse and one of the competitors of the 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai, checks a patient in Kampala, Uganda, Sept. 16, 2026. (Photo by Nicholas Kajoba/Xinhua)
KAMPALA, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- For Ugandan nurse Flavia Nakaayi, who lives in Mpererwe, a suburb north of Uganda's capital Kampala, China was once a faraway country she knew mainly through TikTok videos.
It's a place of towering skyscrapers, a rich and colorful culture, and even robots serving guests in hotels. But that distant image is about to become a reality.
Nakaayi, 21, is set to fly to China to compete in the 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai, which will take place this week. For her, the trip will mark not only her first flight and first journey abroad, but also her first time stepping onto the global stage as a vocational skills trainee.
The competition will bring together more than 1,400 young skilled competitors from over 70 countries and regions to compete in 64 official skill events under the theme "New Era, New Skills, New Dream."
Nakaayi's journey to Shanghai began far from the international spotlight.
The eldest of two children, she was raised by a single mother in Mpererwe. After completing Senior Four, the equivalent of lower secondary education in Uganda, she chose to leave the conventional academic path and pursue vocational training.
"Some of us are not from a well-off family, so I wanted something to do immediately after (school), start earning and relieve my mother the burden of tuition. When I finished school, I started working," she told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Nursing had been Nakaayi's passion since childhood, shaped in part by her own experiences with illness.
"I had a sickly childhood; I was this person who was always sick, moving to different hospitals. I was cared for when I needed help. So those people who took care of me when I was sick, it is now time for me to reward them," she said.
She later enrolled at Kabale School of Comprehensive Nursing and Midwifery in southwestern Uganda, more than 400 km from her home. There, she focused on her training and eventually earned a certificate in nursing.
Last year, WorldSkills Uganda, under Uganda's Ministry of Education and Sports, organized regional and national skills competitions involving trainees from technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions across the country.
Nakaayi competed against trainees from across the country, advancing through fiercely contested regional and national competitions to eventually become the national champion in the Healthcare/Nursing category.
Nakaayi will be joined in Shanghai by Elizabeth Mutoro, the national champion in Welding, and Paul Lugobe, the national champion in Cooking.
To prepare to compete against some of the world's top young skilled competitors, Nakaayi underwent intensive hands-on training at Kibuli Hospital in Uganda's capital, where industry experts provided detailed guidance on her nursing techniques and procedures.
Before their departure, the three competitors also received training in psychological resilience, international competition etiquette and cross-cultural communication.
Nakaayi said that regardless of whether she wins a medal, the opportunity to step onto the global skills competition stage in China, connect with peers from around the world and learn from one another is in itself an important step in her life.
"The major thing here is to learn. We are going to be nurses from different countries; each country has its own way of doing things. So what is taking me there besides competing is to learn new ideas, new techniques of nursing practice, improve areas like communication, critical thinking and safe patient health care delivery," Nakaayi said.
She said she is particularly interested in how China applies technology to healthcare and hopes to see how technological advances can improve nursing practice.
Jackson Kuucha, Team Leader of WorldSkills Uganda, told Xinhua that Uganda will send a delegation of more than 30 people, including senior government officials responsible for TVET, competitors, and heads of several TVET institutions.
Kuucha said the trip to Shanghai would not only be an opportunity to showcase Uganda's skilled talent, but also an important platform to benchmark the country's skills against global standards, build international partnerships and learn from other countries. The delegation hopes to bring the knowledge and experience gained back home to further strengthen Uganda's technical and vocational education and training system.
According to Ugandan government reports, vocational education is regarded as an important driver of industrialization and economic transformation, as well as a means of addressing youth unemployment. Nearly 1,000 technical and vocational education and training institutions across the country are currently overseen by the Ministry of Education and Sports.
For Kuucha, China's experience offers lessons for Uganda as it seeks to strengthen vocational education.
He said vocational training in China places greater emphasis on practical skills, while Uganda's system remains comparatively theoretical, creating gaps between classroom learning and workplace requirements.
"You realize that we are somehow delivering our content with talk and chalk and yet with vocational education, it is meant to be hands-on," the official said. "That's why we have engineers who don't know how to hold a spanner, how to unbolt nuts." ■
Paul Lugobe, a Ugandan chef and one of the competitors of the 48th WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai, undergoes a culinary skills training at a hotel in Kampala, Uganda, Aug. 25, 2026. (WorldSkills Uganda/Handout via Xinhua)
