On your marks, get set & go
Soldering, welding and bending

The national apprenticeship competition for installation and building technology travels around Austria every year – in 2025, it stopped in Burgenland. This time, the venue was the HERZ Energietechnik company premises in Pinkafeld. Seventeen of the best apprentices from all over Austria demonstrated their craftsmanship. They soldered, welded, bent – and celebrated at the end.

The tasks were challenging and based on real-life situations: within twelve hours, a cold and hot water copper installation, a cold water pipe made of galvanised steel, a gas pipe made of black steel, and a plastic drainage system had to be installed according to plan. This involved working techniques such as soft and hard soldering, welding, and hot and cold bending. Dimensional accuracy, quality, material consumption, and tightness were evaluated at the end – a competition that demanded precision, endurance, and technical understanding. Promoting training and further education is a matter close to HERZ's heart – not just in words, but also through concrete contributions. The national apprenticeship competition is a good example of this: when young people are committed, they should also find the right conditions. Because one thing is clear to HERZ: training and further education deserve space – in both senses of the word.

“It's great to see how committed the young people are to their careers and how good the training is in the companies,” said Burgenland Guild Master Andreas Karlich to the media, adding: “The motivation of the participants has shown that we don't need to worry about the future of skilled workers and apprenticeships. Highly motivated apprentices become top skilled workers.”

First place went to Christian Wieser from Tyrol, followed by Julian Edinger and Michael Gruber from Lower Austria. "Young talents need a stage where they can show what they are capable of. The national apprenticeship competition is just such a stage – practical, challenging, and encouraging. We see it as part of our responsibility to provide a framework for this – and as an investment in the future of skilled trades," said Manuel Höller, Sales Manager at HERZ Energietechnik.

The future needs the industry— and the industry needs the future.

HERZ's support does not end with individual events. For years, the company has been committed to training and further education – in its own training centres in Vienna, Pinkafeld, and far beyond.

Practical training courses are part of the standard offering: For school classes, topics such as hydraulic balancing and modern heating systems are prepared in a manner appropriate to the school level. There are also customised programs for skilled workers, covering everything from heat generation to system optimisation. In addition, HERZ supports educational institutions such as technical colleges, WIFI locations, and vocational schools with laboratory stands, boiler systems, and individual components from the HERZ range. The objective is clear: modern training with a practical focus.

Most recently, HERZ Energietechnik supplied the vocational school in Mattersburg with a HERZ pelletfire combi boiler and a storage tank with a capacity of 146 kg of pellets. This will be used in lessons to give future installers practical training in modern, sustainable heating technology.

HERZ firmly believes that investing in training is not a short-term project. It is an investment in the future of our profession. And if that future is shaped by young people as committed as those we saw at the national apprenticeship competition, then we can look forward to it with great confidence.