From Connecticut Shop Class to the World Stage: One Apprentice’s Journey to WorldSkills 2026
Key Highlights
- WorldSkills originated in 1950 as a response to post-war reconstruction needs, evolving into a global platform for skilled trades recognition
- Charles Goede's journey from vo-tech student to international competitor highlights the impact of industry support and dedicated training
- Participation in global events not only showcases skills but also inspires young people to pursue careers in skilled trades
The WorldSkills organization traces its mission and history back to the dark days following the Second World War. Entire nations lay in ruins and the need for skilled labor in the massive work of reconstruction was as desperate as at any point in history.
Some took this challenge as an opportunity to introduce young people to the world of the skilled trades. Francisco Albert-Vidal was charged with creating a skills contest for the youth of Spain and Portugal. Albert-Vidal was an activist, political prisoner during the Spanish Civil War, and a later a teacher at the Virgen de La Paloma VET, a public vocational training institute in Madrid, Spain.
The first of what would later be known as the WorldSkills Competitions, Madrid 1950, was a modest event by today’s standards, but it gave birth to a movement. Today, 89 WorldSkills member organizations reach two-thirds of the world’s population, working to raise the recognition of skilled people and show how important skills are in achieving economic growth and personal success.
The WorldSkills Competition—held every other year—remains the organization’s signature event. The next will be held September 22-27, 2026, in Shanghai, China.
The competition is more than an opportunity to promote and celebrate the skilled trades, it is also a stage where countries from around the world showcase their best trainees, and by extension their training programs and methods. In all, more than 20 different trades are represented, including plumbing.
Winning Formula
However, WorldSkills is not a stage where the US has done its best in recent years as Dan Quinonez, Executive Director of the PHCC Educational Foundation and Chief Operating Officer of the National Association, laments.
“The US as a competitor in the plumbing competition was coming in near the bottom,” Quinonez said. “The joke is that we were losing to countries that didn't even have working plumbing.”
Quinonez attributes that lack of success to several factors, but the most critical seemed to be finding the right person to compete and then getting that person properly trained. Last year, the PHCC began scouting candidates very early in the process. The apprentice they settled on was Charles Goede.
Goede is a plumbing apprentice and graduate of Ella T. Grasso Technical High School in Groton, CT. He is in his third year of a five-year apprenticeship at UA Local 777. Goede earned the 2024 SkillsUSA Connecticut state championship and went on to take second place nationally in plumbing at the SkillsUSA Championships in Atlanta.
Right Person for the Job
Goede began his journey in the trades through an exploratory program at his vo-tech high school. “I discovered plumbing through some older friends in the plumbing shop, and it really spoke to me the most as a trade,” Goede said. “I said to myself, this is something I definitely can make a career of, and I would be happy if I did.”
It was Goede’s plumbing teacher at Ella T. Grasso who first interested him in the SkillsUSA competition. After placing second in the national competition, a member of the Connecticut PHCC asked about his interest in the WorldSkills competition.
“I was overjoyed to hear that they considered me, and I was even more ecstatic when they selected me,” Goede said. “I love the people I'm working with, I love where I'm working. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to be around.”
Banding Together as an Industry
Now, Goede is going through a period of intense training to prepare him for Shanghai. Hands-on technical coaching will be provided by Robert Hahn, plumbing and heating instructor at Eastwick College/HoHokus School of Trades, and Larry Shoemaker, owner of Deluxe Plumbing & Heating LLC and a member of the PHCC Educational Foundation Board. The PHCC Educational Foundation is also providing financial and logistical backing to get Goede competition-ready.
“Last year, for the first time, we really banded together as an industry to start looking at ways to better train the competitor for WorldSkills,” Quinonez said. By “we,” Quinonez means not only the PHCC, but also the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO), the United Association (UA) and other industry partners.
Goede has a dedicated training space at the JATC Center in Connecticut and has been training in 40-hour blocks every other month, with additional training every other Saturday.
“We purposely bought some metric fittings and tools,” Vinne Valente, Training Coordinator at Local 777 said. “We're trying to get him right in that mindset, you know, where the things that he touches today will be the same things he sees in the competition. We're very, very proud that he's going to represent the United States. I don't think you could have picked a finer young man. He’s just a great kid.”
While Goede is focused on next-year’s competition—even learning a few essential phrases in Mandarin—he hasn’t lost sight of the big picture: building a future career for himself in the trades. He hopes someday to work his way up to foreman and run his own crews.
And who knows? He may one day come full circle to serve as an instructor for a future generation of young plumbing trainees.
Read more about WorldSkills and Charles Goede, with comments from PHCC, IAPMO and the UA.
IAPMO Marks 10-Year Partnership with WorldSkills to Advance Plumbing Trades.