Career
voestalpine and European vocational skills championship EuroSkills launch partnership
20. July 2020
voestalpine and European vocational skills championship EuroSkills launch partnership
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Christopher Eberl
Christopher Eberl is editorially responsible for the topics on the blog as well as for the apprentice website. With his stories he provides deep insights into the diverse world of the voestalpine Group.
In January 2021 EuroSkills, Europe’s vocational skills championship, will be held in Austria for the first time. In its role as a partner, voestalpine is once again demonstrating its strong commitment to tomorrow’s skilled workers.
EuroSkills 2020, the European vocational skills championship, is looking for the best young skilled workers in about 45 different trades. From January 6 to 10, 2021, the competition comes to Austria for the first time, to the Styrian capital of Graz, making this a home fixture for voestalpine.
Demonstrating championship qualities
Skills are the competences and abilities attained through training, and the young skilled workers will need all of them during the three-day competition. About 650 contestants from 30 countries will be assigned tasks to accomplish within their specialist field, with an international jury of experts evaluating the way in which they go about their tasks, and the results. Accordingly, good competition results are well respected in the professional world–and it says a lot about the standard of training within voestalpine companies that, right from the start, Group apprentices have succeeded in bringing home several medals.
More than a competition
EuroSkills 2020 is more than just an exciting competition because anyone not (yet) able to take part has the chance to test their aptitudes and strengths at the “testing stations” in the “Try a Skill” career guidance project. By partnering with EuroSkills 2020, voestalpine also benefits from the broad range of supporting programs offered to young talents. Having a presence in Graz gives the Group the opportunity to present its own apprenticeship training schemes, and to keep an eye out for the promising employees of tomorrow.
"Training young people is a core task of the steel and technology group voestalpine. As Austria’s largest industrial apprentice trainer, we are delighted that EuroSkills is coming to Graz. This year again 300 new apprentices across Austria will start their apprenticeship at voestalpine, 160 of them in Styria."
Apprenticeship training essential
The fundamental principles of safeguarding the future apply particularly in economically challenging times: research & development, paired with training tomorrow’s employees, forms the backbone of any strategic enterprise. “Apprentices are a core element in our company, and we never cut corners in their training, even in difficult times,”[1] stressed Head of HR Max Stelzer. The figures support this: over the past 70 years voestalpine has trained more than 25,000 skilled workers.
Christopher Eberl