Local authorities kicked off a senior-care vocational skills competition on Thursday to foster the development of the city's nursing industry.

Senior-care workers in the city will put their knowledge and nursing skills to the test, according to the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.

The competition is open to all senior-care workers in the city and winners will represent Shanghai at a national competition.

The competition is being jointly hosted by the bureau, the Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and the Shanghai Health Commission.

"The competition aims to lift the high-quality development of the city's senior service industry and boost the building up of professional senior-care teams in the city," said Jiang Rui, deputy director of the civil affairs bureau.

Senior-care workers can file an application through senior homes where they work.

The contest is also part of a series of promotional activities for the 46th WorldSkills Competition to be held in Shanghai next year, according to the bureau.

At the end of 2020, the population of people aged 60 and above in Shanghai had reached 5.33 million, or 36.1 percent of permanent residents, up 3 percent from 2019, triggering a need for more senior care workers.

Among them, 825,300 were 80 or older and 3,000 were centenarians.