Burnout represents one of the most pressing challenges in contemporary work and learning environments shaped by rapid technological change, performance pressures, and lifelong learning imperatives. While burnout research has extensively examined corporate employees, healthcare professionals, and entrepreneurs, vocational education and training (VET) teachers remain underrepresented, despite occupying hybrid professional roles bridging education, industry, and workforce development. This article develops a theoretical and conceptual analysis of skills competitions, particularly those embedded within the WorldSkills ecosystem, as a systemic intervention mitigating teacher burnout. Integrating Maslach’s multidimensional burnout theory, Self-Determination Theory (SDT), and the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, the paper proposes a framework that explains how competition-based learning environments transform occupational demands into developmental and motivational resources. Drawing on the organisational logic of WorldSkills-oriented roles (e.g., Skills Expert, Skills Competition Coordinator) and assessment practices (Test Projects, Marking Schemes), the study argues that skills competitions enhance autonomy, competence, and relatedness, while simultaneously restoring professional meaning, recognition, and work engagement. Consequently, skills competitions function not merely as talent-development tools for learners, but also as system-level burnout-prevention mechanisms for educators within contemporary learning economies

Copper is a strategic raw material for the European economy, while the sector’s ongoing green and digital transformation is creating new competency requirements and intensifying workforce development challenges. The objective of this study was to identify and analyse competency gaps among selected occupational groups considered strategic for the sustainable development of the copper sector, with a specific focus on European countries covered by the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS). A mixed-methods research design was applied, combining desk research, a computer-assisted web interview (CAWI) survey and focus group interviews (FGIs). Six strategic occupational profiles covering EQF levels 3–7 were identified through desk research and expert input from industrial partners. The quantitative survey comprised 250 complete responses from employees and managers of copper-sector companies in Poland, Greece and Bulgaria, while the qualitative stage involved focus group interviews with employees representing different organisational and occupational groups in the same three countries. The findings indicate that the analysed occupational profiles require a combination of specialised STEM knowledge and skills with competencies related to modern automation and digitalisation, including VR/AR/XR and artificial intelligence. The identified competency gaps concerned both professional skills, including the use of digital technologies, information processing and technical documentation, and transversal skills, particularly problem solving, adaptability, communication, teamwork and analytical thinking. The findings provide an empirical basis for identifying priority areas for upskilling and reskilling and for developing targeted lifelong learning solutions for the occupational profiles and industrial contexts examined in the study.