voestalpine is now officially “part of it”! As a new Gold Sponsor for EuroSkills 2020, the company will be presenting the manufacturing industry’s potential for specialist training in its many aspects and will be supporting the “Try a skill” feature to enable visitors to experience these skills and trades at first hand. The company’s sponsorship certificate was signed by Josef Herk (EuroSkills 2020 GmbH supervisory board chairman) and Franz Kainersdorfer (voestalpine AG board member and head of the Metal Engineering Division) on 13 August at the Donawitz site in Leoben.

In its area of operations, voestalpine is a world-leading steel and technology group with a combination of materials and processing expertise. The globally operating corporate group, with its headquarters in Linz, has around 500 group companies and sites in over 50 countries on all five continents. With its top-quality products and system solutions, it is a leading partner to the automotive and consumer goods industries as well as the aerospace and oil & gas industries, and is also the world market leader in railway systems, tool steel, and special profiles. voestalpine has a long tradition of apprenticeship training.  The company is currently training a total of 1,300 apprentices worldwide, including 840 in Austria and 400 in Styria. And around 300 new apprentices are also being taken on this coming autumn. voestalpine invests more than EUR 70,000 in the training of each apprentice.

In recent years, an increasing number of former voestalpine apprentices have competed successfully at EuroSkills and WorldSkills competitions. Against this backdrop, the Austrian competitors at their home games of EuroSkills 2020 in Graz are able to count on the company’s support.

Franz Kainersdorfer, voestalpine AG board member and head of the Metal Engineering Division, said, “The training and education of young people is a core activity for the voestalpine steel and technology group. As Austria’s largest industrial apprenticeship training provider, we are particularly looking forward to the staging of EuroSkills 2021 in Graz. This year alone, voestalpine is taking on another 300 new apprentices throughout Austria – including 160 in Styria.”

Talking about the partnership, Josef Herk, EuroSkills 2020 GmbH supervisory board chairman and president of the Styrian Economic Chamber, said: “Sponsors such as voestalpine will provide absolutely essential support for the event in January, as well as for the young, skilled workers at national and international level. And we are all the more delighted that our sponsors such as voestalpine are staying loyal to us and wanting to be part of EuroSkills 2020, even in these difficult times.”

EuroSkills 2020 would like to take this opportunity to thank voestalpine once again for their much valued support. We are Skills!

Photos gallery: voestalpine/Regine Schoettl.