The silver medal bagged by Truong The Dieu, now a student with the Hanoi Vocational College of Technology, is Vietnam's highest achievement to date at the global competition of vocational skills, dubbed the "Olympics of Skills," held August 22-27 in the Russian city of Kazan.

Vietnam has attended the WorldSkills Competition seven years in a row and has never won a medal before.

Dieu was awarded the medal in Computer Numeric Control (CNC) milling in the competition's manufacturing-engineering technology category.

CNC millers shape metal and other solid materials using a computer controlled milling machine to create products used in almost every aspect of modern life, from cars and smart phones to kitchen appliances and prosthetic limbs. Many of the appliances and objects used every day depend on CNC milling.

Dieu was trained and sent to the competition by the Vietnam Training Academy of Denso Vietnam, a subsidiary of Japan's Denso Corporation, a leading supplier of advanced automotive technology, systems and components for major automakers.

The course he took was held under an agreement signed between the Directorate of Vocational Education and Training under Vietnam's labor ministry and Denso Vietnam in December last year. The company offered training courses for three Vietnamese college students, including Dieu, for the competition.

Speaking about his achievement and future plans, Dieu said that he has a passion for this sector and knows he should choose it as a professional career, which is why he had applied for a vocational college instead of a university in the first place.

"Choose the profession that you love and have passion for, and you can easily succeed," he told Voice of Vietnam when asked what message he wants to send to other young people.

This year, Vietnam's delegation of 19 contestants was the biggest ever the nation has sent to the competition.

Aside from the silver medal earned by Dieu, eight other contestants were awarded medallions of excellence in web technologies, welding, prototype modeling, electrical installations, car painting, plastic die engineering, and construction metal work.

The fund for training and sending Vietnamese contestants to the event was sourced from the state budget and several private companies.

Over 1,300 competitors competed in 56 skills at the WorldSkills Competition 2019, its 45th edition.

China was the overall winner with 35 medals, including 16 gold medals. It was followed by Russia with 22 medals, 14 of them gold.

Gold winners received a cash prize of $20,000 and silver medal winners got $10,000.

Bronze medalists received $5,000, and those awarded with medallions for excellence got $1,000.