In a candid conversation with Priyanka Parshurami, Founder, Penspire, Biju Nair, Founder Director, LTA Retail Academy, takes us through the journey behind the medal at World Skills 2026—from decoding the skill and preparing Sania Joshi without a previous Indian benchmark to what the result could mean for the future of India’s retail workforce.
India arrived on the global Retail Sales skills stage at World Skills 2026 Shanghai with no previous competition experience to draw from. It left with a Silver Medal.
Behind that debut was a process that began long before the competition arena: understanding what Retail Sales actually demands as a skill, identifying the right talent, interpreting international benchmarks and building a training programme from scratch.
At the centre of that journey was Biju Nair, Founder Director, LTA Retail Academy and Chief Expert for Retail Sales, who trained India’s representative, Sania Joshi, for the country’s first appearance in Retail Sales at the World Skills 2026 Shanghai.
Here’s the excerpt from the interview.
“The Role Demands Much More Than Being a Good Communicator”
Priyanka Parshurami: When you started preparing for Retail Sales, what was the biggest challenge?
Biju Nair: Retail sales skills, especially the sales associate role, demand skills beyond being just a good communicator. My biggest challenge was identifying the entire gamut of skills the role demands—visual merchandising, promotion strategies, inventory management, business metrics and more.
Once those skills were identified, the next challenges were finding the right-fit candidate and structuring intensive training aligned with World Skills 2026. All of these were equally challenging.
Building a Training Framework Without a Previous Indian Benchmark
Priyanka Parshurami: How did you prepare for a competition when it was the debut of this skill in the competition?
Biju Nair: World Skills competition is based on skills benchmarked and defined in a document shared by World Skills International. It is loosely comparable to a course syllabus.
As a Chief Expert, I was required to interpret that document and build the entire rigorous training module and assessment based on that interpretation.
Since we did not have a past competition to fall back on, I had to make the best of what was known. I also had to rely on instinct and anticipate possible scenarios to prepare our candidate.
“I Wasn’t Thinking of Winning”
Priyanka Parshurami: Going into Shanghai, and winning Silver for the country in Retail Sales. How does it feels?
Biju Nair: Throughout my preparation, I wanted to focus on how we could present a strong challenge. I wasn’t thinking of winning.
My objective was to present an image of my country that announces its arrival on the world stage as the future skills capital of the world.
I was very pleased to see that our candidate could translate what we had practised into performance at the competition arena.
Winning Silver against strong contenders from Europe made the victory sweeter. My heart was filled with a sense of joy that I could contribute to making my country proud.
Our win also helped our country climb to the 10th position in the world. That is a new milestone for our country.
What Can the Silver Medal Change for Retail?
Priyanka Parshurami: What kind of ripple effect do you expect this achievement to have on India’s retail sector?
Biju Nair: This win will have a huge ripple effect for the retail sector.
First, it will encourage more young people to consider this skill, which so far has not been looked upon as a serious potential career.
Second, it will bring more professionalism into retail at the associate level, which will largely impact the perception and business of retail.
I see a structured career path evolving for retail—starting as an associate and moving up the ladder into operations, marketing, visual merchandising or even supply chain management.
“There Is No Dearth of Talent in India”
Priyanka Parshurami: Where do you see the biggest gap in India’s retail workforce today?
Biju Nair: There is no dearth of talent in India for retail, but there is a huge training gap in the sector.
That affects customer experience, providing optimum value for customers’ money and, more importantly, the growth of this sector at the scale and scope of its potential.
The right skills training can significantly improve the efficiency and productivity of associates while making the retail business more profitable.
From India-Focused to World-Focused
Priyanka Parshurami: Has this World Skills journey changed your own perspective as an educator?
Biju Nair: My perspective through this journey changed from being India-focused to training our talent to be world-focused.
I now have my eye set on producing world-class talent from India, ready to take up international job opportunities or become successful entrepreneurs.
That is also reflected in what we are trying to build through LTA School of Retail.
We are attempting to provide our world-class training at a pan-India level. Our training not only prepares participants to increase their efficiency in their current role, but also prepares them for the next level of their career.
We would also be training future-ready professionals who adopt new technology and AI to increase efficiency and productivity.
Preparing for the Retail Growth Ahead
Priyanka Parshurami: What is your larger vision for retail sales in India?
Biju Nair: My vision is that, with India integrating more closely with world economies through free trade agreements, there will be many international brands setting up shops in India.
I would like to create a ready pool of highly trained professionals even before the floodgates of retail stores open up.
The demand for world-class retail professionals will far exceed its supply. I would like to lead that initiative to fill this gap.
Why Young People Should Look at Retail
Priyanka Parshurami: Finally, what would you say to young people considering retail as a career?
Biju Nair: Retail is one of the largest employment-generating sectors in India, second only to the agricultural sector.
Retail will never be fully replaced by AI. In fact, AI will only create further opportunities in retail.
This sector will continue to provide huge career opportunities with attractive pay packages for those who are talented and skilled, especially in the emerging e-commerce space.
I would encourage youth to take a serious look at the retail sector and build their competency in a structured way through the right training.
Beyond the Medal
India’s first appearance in Retail Sales at World Skills 2026 produced a Silver Medal. But the significance of the achievement extends beyond the podium.
For Nair, the journey demonstrated that India can take a relatively new skills discipline, interpret an international benchmark, develop talent against it and compete with established contenders on the world stage.
The next challenge is to make that capability scalable.
The vision emerging from this debut is not simply to produce another medal-winning candidate. It is to build a pipeline of world-ready Indian retail professionals who can work across markets, progress through structured career paths and create opportunities of their own.
Sania Joshi’s Silver may have marked India’s entry into global Retail Sales competition. For Biju Nair, it is also the beginning of a larger conversation about how India trains, equips and exports its retail talent.
