Recent Press Releases

"I really did not expect to come first, and I was therefore all the more thrilled," says the quiet young man. Together with his colleagues and their trainer Eugen Brenner, Ludyga set off for Sulzbach in the German Saarland in early November to attend the National Skills Challenge for Technical Draughtsmen. The event took place over three days, and every day the participants had to complete a separate task.
"Of course we were a bit nervous in the beginning," admits Ludyga's colleague Julia Riek, "but we soon settled in." There was not much time for nurturing stage fright anyway. Every day, the young professionals had to focus for about six hours on solving their tasks under the watchful eyes of the jury and members of the CIC - tasks that were truly challenging. "The standard was distinctly above exam level," says Eugen Brenner. During the competition, Eugen Brenner was able to look over the shoulders of his young protégés: "It was really impressive how organized and systematically they approached their tasks," he says looking back with a certain amount of pride.

Next year, gold medal winner Mathias Ludyga will represent Germany at the World Skills Competition held in Leipzig. The patron is Chancellor Angela Merkel. Christina Muraschkin (21), who got the silver medal in Sulzbach, the 18-year-old bronze winner Julia Großmann, and Julia Riek (18), who followed closely on the heels of the other three contestants and took fourth place, will accompany Mathias Ludyga on his trip to the World Skills Challenge in Leipzig.

Eugen Brenner, who co-developed the new job description for technical product designers at the BiBB (Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training), once participated himself in a World Skills Championship. In 1981 he won the gold medal for steel construction mechanics in Atlanta (USA). At the time he already stood out by a characteristic, which he now passes on to young people: concentrated and targeted work from the first moment right to the end. "Give it your best shot and take your foot off the gas only after you have reached your goal," was the work ethic he instilled in his apprentices during their preparations. At the same time he does not believe in the strict educational methods of the past: "You must never squeeze young people into a strait-jacket, it suffocates their creativity. They need freedom and scope and should always remember their apprenticeship as a happy time, a time of inspiration," is his credo. This is how he experienced his apprenticeship at Voith between 1976 and 1978.
Back then one of his most cherished ambitions also began to take shape: to be able one day to pass on the positive lessons for life he acquired at Voith to future generations. After graduating from technical college and working as a draughtsman, Eugen Brenner made his dream come true in 1989 when he became an instructor for technical draughtsmen, now called technical product designers.