Sany Palfinger Joint Venture Open Door Day Apprentice Program Austria - Speech Mrs. Silvia Neureiter, General Consul | Austrian Consulate General Shanghai

​Dear Mr.Pan, Mrs.Zhang, Mrs. Cao, Mr.Xu, Mr.Zhai , Mr.Yu
Dear Mr. Königshofer, Dear Mr. Kaiser Wang, Dear Mr. Kewei Hu, Dear Mr. Goradz Hlapcic, Dear Mrs. Ullrich
Dear Sany-Palfinger staff members, apprentices, and parents
Dear guests,

Please allow me to express my warm congratulations for this “successful Open Door Day” of the new Sany Palfinger dual vocational training program here in Rudong.

As  representative of  the Austrian Ambassadors in China and on behalf of the Austrian Development Agency, the operational unit of the Austrian Development Cooperation, the apprenticeship program which was initiated by Sany Palfinger together with the partners from the Secondary Technical vocational school in Rudong, with a great support from the Rudong Economic Development Zone,  in Summer 2015 is dear to me.

Why? (No, it is not only because ADA supports this project):

• As a donor country, Austria strongly believes that education is a key factor for alleviating poverty, and therefore constitutes a fundamental goal of development. This is the reason why Austrian Development Cooperation has been supporting vocational training programs since its beginnings in the 1960s.
• In general, Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) supports countries in different parts of the world (Africa, Asia, Latin America and South-Eastern and Eastern Europe) in their sustainable social, economic and democratic development. 
• Our implementing partners are public institutions, non-government organizations and businesses, depending on the nature of the project. The general goal is to improve living conditions of people in our partner countries.
• In this context, the Austrian Development Cooperation recognizes that the private sector in countries like China has tremendous potential to alleviate poverty and spur economic growth. Public-private partnerships are one instrument where the interests of development cooperation and business overlap.
• One such synergy is found in the area of vocational education and training: This field offers many opportunities for public-private partnerships, such as those that are financially supported by our Business Partnership Program.
• Since 2004, Austria has co-funded more than 170 partnership projects with a total volume of about 34 Mio EUR. Projects can be co-funded up to 50%.

 

• In the area of practically-oriented vocational training, China is extending remarkable efforts to improve the country’s vocational training system. At this point, I would like to express my deep appreciation for this difficult task.
• Austria in turn has internationally recognized core competence in dual vocational education and training, and low rates of youth unemployment: The Austrian dual vocational training system constitutes a best practice model within the EU and beyond. It successfully combines on-the-job training with general and theoretical education in vocational training centers. This way, apprentices get the background they need but are already adapted to the workplace by the time they conclude their training.
• In this context, we are happy to share our know how. We trust that this apprenticeship program constitutes an important step to offer high-quality vocational training to the youth and consequently very good job prospects in future. The company in turn will be able to rely on well-qualified staff members with an excellent training background.

In closing, I would like to thank all partners for their efforts and hard work in launching this project! Congratulations and the best of luck for the future implementation and growth of this promising apprenticeship program! 
Thank you for your attention!
​Sincerly 
Silvia Neureiter
Courtesy agreed: Original Speech from Mrs. Neureiter on July 14, 2016 in the SPV, Rudong, China