EuroSkills Graz rescheduled for September 2021, but Team UK will not be competing

@WorldSkillsEuro and the EuroSkills Graz Organising Committee officially announced today that EuroSkills Graz has been rescheduled for 22–26 September 2021.

The event was originally scheduled to take place in September 2020 but was postponed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic – first to January 2021 and then indefinitely – while the Austrian authorities re-organised to mitigate against the spread of the virus.

WorldSkills Europe has communicated and collaborated closely with its Members, Competition Organisers, Partners, and stakeholders since the pandemic began, and is constantly moderating all possible scenarios around risk management and risk mitigation for holding EuroSkills Graz in September 2021.

The EuroSkills Graz 2021 team has drawn up extensive measures and developed a well-balanced and extremely comprehensive Covid-19 prevention concept in line with the regulations currently in force in order to host the event in September 2021.

The original venue for the event, Messecongress Graz, is already booked for other events in September 2021, so EuroSkills Graz 2021 will take place in the Schwarzl Freizeitzentrum Center, which is located 15km from the centre of Graz.

Further information about the rescheduled event is available at www.euroskills2021.com.

Dita Traidas, President of WorldSkills Europe, said: “As with all major international events, the pandemic has significantly impacted the planning and hosting of the EuroSkills event in Graz. We are incredibly thankful and proud of the EuroSkills Graz team who have worked tirelessly and in close collaboration with WorldSkills Europe to ensure we continue driving the WorldSkills movement forward in these complicated circumstances.

“We are grateful for the strong commitment of the supporters of EuroSkills Graz 2021 and look forward with great hope, so that despite everything we have gone through, in September this year we will have the best skills event in Europe once again.”

Josef Herk, EuroSkills 2021 initiator and President of the Styrian Chamber of Commerce, said: “We will do everything in our power to hold EuroSkills in Graz in autumn 2021. With our enthusiasm and spirit unbroken, we shall make it an international showcase for education and training. Qualified education and training, and our young professionals – these are the future of our countries, the future of Europe. In the coming years we will face enormous challenges, which we can only overcome with the help of our young professionals in Europe. In the spirit of a culture of enabling, the relocation of the event offers us many new possibilities for this festival of young professionals with its spacious open-air grounds. I would like to thank all supporters, patrons and sponsors who have remained loyal to us in these challenging times.”

Team UK not participating in the rescheduled EuroSkills Graz

Dr Neil Bentley-Gockmann OBE, Chief Executive, WorldSkills UK said: 

“Following careful consideration of the information provided by the boards of WorldSkills Europe and EuroSkills Graz, we have taken the difficult decision not to participate in the rescheduled EuroSkills Graz competition which is due to take place in September.

“We believe there is still too much ongoing uncertainty, with a changing situation in terms of Covid security, to be able to commit now to participate.

“We have a duty of care to our competitors and we are aware that the ongoing restrictions means that our Team UK members might not be able to prepare fully, in sufficient time, for the event.  We are also aware that we may face further controls regarding international travel, and we are not in a position to commit public funding to take part when we could face further disruption.

“Instead we will focus our international training programmes on participating in WorldSkills Shanghai 2022. Key to this will be ongoing skills benchmarking and pressure testing against European and global partners virtually, and alongside the competition activity, sharing of best practice and insights to help inform policy and practice on mainstreaming excellence in the UK.”