A total of 27 apprentices in their first to third year of training competed against one another in the disciplines of building construction, concrete construction and civil engineering as part of the first “PORR Skills” contest. And they demonstrated some serious skill.

The excitement was palpable, as every move had to be spot on. In the building construction category, masonry skills were required: Within a single day, participants had to build a section of wall featuring a window opening and a pillar in exposed brickwork. Turning to civil engineering, the task involved paving. An area of two square metres - including a recess – had to be neatly lined with small cobblestones. The teams in concrete construction, on the other hand, had to build an L-shaped wall formwork with a window opening and a working platform.

The competition was held at the PORR Campus, the construction firm’s training campus in Vienna. Participants were assessed on a range of criteria including the quality and precision of their work, the tidiness of the work area.

Proud winners

“PORR Skills has not only given the apprentices the chance to demonstrate the high quality of their work but also the breadth of their skills”, said PORR COO Josef-Dieter Deix, who personally presented the prizes to the winners. 

The winners of the contest are:

In the category Building Construction/Masonry: 

1. Platz: Julian Keglovits (Burgenland)
2. Platz: Adil Jasarevic (Salzburg)
3. Platz: Niclas Klaus (Burgenland)

In the category Civil Engineering/Paving:

1. Platz: Philip Rene Schober (Burgenland)
2. Platz: Patrick Rossmann (Vienna)
3. Platz: Isaac Yaw Boateng (Upper Austria)

In the category Concrete Construction:

1. Platz: Tobias Bognar (Burgenland) und Maddox McCown (Carinthia)
2. Platz: Laurin Steiner und Noah Thaler (Tyrol)
3. Lukas Gether und Timo Hirschegger (Styria)

In future PORR Skills will be a regular addition. “With this contest, PORR is nurturing young talent and identifying participants for future national and international competitions”, said PORR CEO Karl-Heinz Strauss. 

Vocational training in 23 disciplines

In total, PORR is training 422 apprentices in 23 disciplines in Austria this year. The spectrum ranges from construction technical assistance and surveying to office administration, as well as traditional building construction, concrete construction and civil engineering. The PORR Campus, built in 2019, represents the fourth pillar of the training programme, alongside the Construction Academy, the vocational school and the training construction site itself. Today, it offers a wide range of training opportunities to apprentices, skilled labourers and employees, with a 550 m² training hall, 1,100 m² of open space and a hall of residence with 55 beds.