In the last few days EuroSkills 2020 has officially welcomed four new companies as sponsors for the event, which is being held in Austria for the first time. The sponsorship and sales team at EuroSkills 2020 GmbH have now managed to persuade around 80 businesses from many different sectors to sign up as sponsors.

Leading the field is Siemens Austria, which is supporting EuroSkills 2020 as a Gold sponsor with its sponsorship certificate now signed and sealed by CEO Wolfgang Hesoun. The technology company, which is one of Austria’s leading enterprises, currently employs around 10,400 staff. The Siemens site in Austria is also the company’s headquarters for the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) economic area. At EuroSkills 2020, Siemens will be lending its strong support mainly in the two skill categories of Industrial Control and Industry 4.0. In the Industry 4.0 competition category, not one, but two teams of young skilled workers from Siemens made it through the qualifying rounds and will represent Austria at EuroSkills 2020. Providing top-quality training is a priority for the company, as Gerhard Zummer, Head of Professional Education at Siemens, explains: “The training we offer at Siemens gives young people the foundations for a career with prospects. We foster our future skilled workforce with new training content, innovative educational concepts and a range of training models, and enable them to make the best start for a successful career at Siemens.”

Fotos Signing Siemens © Siemens/Philipp Lipiarski.

The number of Silver sponsors has also grown with the addition of Bohle GmbH. The company has upgraded its sponsorship package and recently started supporting 2020 as a Silver sponsor – from being a Bronze sponsor previously – mainly in the category of Glass Construction Technology. This skill category will also be part of the competition for the first time in the history of EuroSkills in September 2020. The fact that the skill of Glass Construction Technology is making its debut at EuroSkills 2020 is in part thanks to the success of the competitors at AustrianSkills 2018.

“If someone asks me whether it’s worth all the effort, I can answer them with a resounding ‘yes’. It’s difficult to quantify what a company gets out of sponsorship, but the resulting potential for customer loyalty is enormous because, looking into the future, these talented young people will be our customers. And, even more importantly, fantastic memories and real friendships will be created,” says Franz Schreibmaier, managing director of Bohle GmbH.

Fotos Signing (c) EuroSkills 2020/KlausMorgenstern

Also now joining us as an official sponsor is the Austrian company Doka, which specialises mainly in formwork construction and is one of the world’s leading companies in the sector. The Amstetten-based company’s reference projects include the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and even the Lotte World Tower in Seoul, with products and formwork systems from Doka having been used in both constructions. At EuroSkills 2020, competitors in the Concrete Construction Work category will be able to try the various products from the Lower Austrian formwork specialists. For Doka, Head of Sales Markus Friesenecker signed the Sponsorship Certificate.

Harald Zulehner, managing director of Doka Österreich GmbH, regards sponsoring EuroSkills 2020 as an opportunity to show appreciation for and to motivate the skilled workers of the future. “At at time when we are experiencing a skills shortage, it is more important than ever to have a highly trained workforce available. Competitions such as EuroSkills help to inspire enthusiasm among young people on the subject of apprenticeships. And this makes us even more delighted that the event is being held in Austria for the first time. We are proud to support the skilled workforce of tomorrow with our formwork equipment at the European Skills Championships, to help spur them on to produce their best performances,” said Zulehner.

Fotos Signing (c) EuroSkills 2020/KlausMorgenstern

And, last but not least, we’ve been joined by our new sponsor FISCH-Tools, where the two managing directors Christoph Riegler and Andreas Eberhard recently signed their sponsorship certificate together with our Supervisory Chairman, Josef Herk. So, what added value does supporting EuroSkills 2020 bring for FISCH Tools? “As a sponsor for the skills of Joinery and Cabinetmaking, we are doing more than simply providing tools. We’re also helping to support the international skills competition, in which the image of the dual education system will be reinforced and a young, highly trained, skilled workforce will be put under the spotlight. We are proud to be part of the event, at which we’ll be able to demonstrate the importance of sound training and education for our sector,” said Christoph Riegler, managing director of FISCH-Tools.

FISCH-Tools has already provided the 28 cabinetmaking competitors from 17 countries with vouchers well in advance of the event, so that the young, skilled workers can prepare for EuroSkills 2020 to the best of their ability with their own individual tool portfolios. The managing directors said that these vouchers had been very well received.

EuroSkills 2020 would like to thank all the companies once again for their valued contribution in supporting the skilled workforce of the future. We are Skills!