LR Teschl-Hofmeister/BM Polaschek/STS Tursky: Impressive presentations and promising ideas from young people
St.Pölten (OTS) – At a press conference this Tuesday followingnoon as part of the HAK digBiz Award 2023 in the House of Digitization in Tulln, Federal Minister Martin Polaschek, Education Minister Christiane Teschl-Hofmeister and Florian Tursky, State Secretary for Digitization and Telecommunications, were impressed by the project presentations and promising ideas of the students Students of the commercial academies Digital Business.
“In the future, digitization will be an indispensable part of almost every area of life and work,” Teschl-Hofmeister began her explanations and continued: “The HAK Digital Business Award is a big and measurable step, showing how far digitization has progressed, especially in the education system.”
In Lower Austria alone – with the support of the federal government – more than 350 school locations have already been equipped with the appropriate devices. “In numbers, that’s 53,000 end devices or around 30,000 schoolchildren who benefit from this digitization initiative,” said the state councilor. 70 IT specialists were assigned to the schools in Lower Austria to promote digitization in the classroom as part of this device initiative, and the state of Lower Austria will continue to invest in education and training in the field of digitization in the future. Teschl-Hofmeister: “It is essential to prepare our young people for the future in the digital field, and that is why we will be setting up two more school locations in Lower Austria in the near future.” From autumn 2024, training and further education will take place at the Technical IT College in Gänserndorf offered and from 2023 at the Digital Business College in Mistelbach.
Federal Minister Martin Polaschek also underlined the importance of measures in the field of digitization and mentioned, among other things, the implementation of the compulsory subject “digital basic education”, which familiarizes the pupils with the advantages of digitization, but also teaches them to recognize dangers and to deal with them to deal with it.” Polaschek was also enthusiastic regarding the knowledge that the young people are taught in the digital business commercial academies: “They are excellently prepared for the digital world of work, and we need young people who have the knowledge and skills to come with us deal with digital tools. But you still need creativity, independent creative thinking and the ability to approach problems critically and to solve them in teams. “Young people can acquire all these skills very well during their training and implement them in projects such as those in the context of the HAK digBiz Awards.”
Finally, the Federal Minister was convinced that training at a digital business commercial academy forms the right basis for entry into future jobs and emphasized that “today’s award event in particular shows the close cooperation between education and business”.
State Secretary Florian Tursky underlined Polaschek’s statement, because the economy in particular is being faced with special challenges and changes as a result of digitization. “Nine out of ten jobs require basic digital knowledge and we have to see how we can best prepare people for this in our classic school system but also in the extracurricular area.” That is why, among other things, a digital skills offensive was launched – a solidarity between the ministries, the social partners and science and economy – closed, explains Tursky, “so that we can ensure that by 2030 all compatriots have basic digital knowledge.”
The Mayor of Tulln and Director of the HAK Peter Eisenschenk also had a say at the press conference, and expressed his delight that the HAK Tulln will be the twentieth location in Austria to offer the branch ‘Digital Business’ from the coming school year. A next step, “to further establish digital training and research in Tulln.” This also closes the circle for the importance of cooperation between business and education, according to Eisenschenk: “Companies are looking for locations where there are sufficient human resources in this area there.”
This was also underlined at the end of the press conference by the chairman of the Association of Commercial Academies Digital Business, Harald Schaber. As early as 2001, the commercial academies set out on the “digital path” and since then, many discussions with HR managers have shown “that precisely these digital skills that are taught to the students are required in business”, meaning the classic one Commercial and economic training in combination with intensive information technology, i.e. digital training.
After the press conference, the winning projects were awarded in the four categories “Best Programming”, “Best Design/Design”, “Best Business Idea” and “Public Award 2023”. Each of the 20 HAK digBiz locations across Austria was able to take part in the competition with their best diploma thesis project. The winners as well as all information regarding the HAK digBiz Award 2023 online at www.hakdigbiz.at
Further information from the LR Teschl-Hofmeister office on 02742/9005-15182, Hans-Peter Pressler, and e-mail hans-peter-pressler@noel.gv.at
Questions & contact:
Office of the Lower Austrian provincial government
State Office Directorate/Public Relations
Doris Zöger
02742/9005-13314
presse@noel.gv.at
www.noe.gv.at/presse
