Volunteers Diary: Our volunteers in Kazan
EuroSkills 2020 goes Kazan: Our two CEOs Angelika Ledineg and Harald del Negro and our Head of Operations, Gerald Prabitz will not be the only ones to witness WorldSkills 2019 in Kazan. Three members of EuroSkills 2020 will also be on site: Natalie Kainz, Christina Oppelz and Sarah Gritsch look forward to working as volunteers for the Extended Secretariat of WorldSkills International.
3,500 volunteers are going to support the organisation of the WorldSkills event in Kazan. Working behind the scenes, they will take care that everything runs smoothly; they will be available at airports and wherever else they are needed; and they will answer any question that may arise and manage everything that needs to be managed. And there will also be some volunteers of the Extended Secretariat of WorldSkills International at work in Russia, each with their very specific tasks and responsibilities in their areas of expertise: Some volunteers will support the marketing and communications team of WorldSkills International and others will work on the competition team. Other areas of activity include IT, logistics and the partnership field. This is where the EuroSkills 2020 team comes in who will contribute all their WorldSkills and EuroSkills expertise: Christina Oppelz will support the WorldSkills Extended Secretariat in the field of Sponsorship and Partnership, and Natalie Kainz will bring her experience in the area of Member Support to bear. As a member of the team of volunteers in charge of Marketing and Communication, Sarah Gritsch will reinforce the press team.
Sarah Gritsch, Christina Oppelz and Natalie Kainz are ready to go: As volunteers for the Extended Secretariat of WorldSkills International they will be working at WorldSkills 2019 in Kazan and gain experience for EuroSkills 2020.
Lessons learned: What our three volunteers want to learn at WorldSkills 2019
The mission of our three volunteers starts around 16 August: While the actual event will be held from 22 to 27 August, the volunteers will arrive a few days ahead of the competition and attend various meetings to prepare for their tasks. Also on the agenda: a short sightseeing tour of the city of Kazan. What do our three volunteers expect from their assignment? „I’m very excited to witness WorldSkills live this year and even be part of the Extended Secretariat Sponsorship and Partnership Team. I hope that my experiences on site and the exchange with my teammates, partners and sponsors will be helpful for EuroSkills 2020“, says Christina Oppelz who is responsible for Sponsoring on the EuroSkills 2020 project team.
Natalie Kainz is our “youngest” EuroSkills team member. She is in charge of organising the Member Support unit and can draw on her many years of experience in the organisation of major events: “I was part of the Special Olympics event in Styria 2017 where I was also responsible for member support. My next stop were the United Arab Emirates where the Special Olympics World Summer Games were held in Abu Dhabi in 2019. There, in my role as Delegation Relationship Manager, I took care of the requests of visitors and participants. “. Natalie’s expertise in this field is even more valuable for WorldSkills. What is she looking forward to the most? „I’m really looking forward to finally experiencing a WorldSkills event myself, collecting new impressions and meeting new people. It is also a good opportunity to get to know the delegations for the year 2020 in advance. “
The third member on the team is Sarah Gritsch, in charge of communication activities at EuroSkills 2020 since November 2018. Before joining the team, she worked as a journalist. “I want to learn as much as possible about providing support to representatives from international media to be thoroughly prepared for next year’s event. It is also a great opportunity to work at an international event and meet new people from the field of communications. I’m looking forward to the various tasks and also to exploring Kazan a little,” she says.
Our team is more than ready for this assignment and will report about their adventures in Kazan in regular blog posts. Stay tuned and follow the blog to learn more about our volunteers’ mission!
