Our next candidate is also part of team Austria; Thomas, 22 years old, who is an excellent and dynamic stonemason! Living and working in Upper Austria, he found his profession by chance through a tryout-day at school which ended in a job offer. Only one year ago, Thomas participated in his first competition, the Austrian national championship, where he proved he deserved a ticket to EuroSkills™ 2016 ! Seeing Thomas' fast growing success, we like to think it might have been destiny to try out stonemasonry and we are looking forward to see more of his work!

Preparation & 3M

"Getting to meet everyone from team Austria is already a great experience and I have learned a lot from them - It gives everyone confidence to be in the same boat and support one another."

Compared to most of his competitors, Thomas learned quite late about the opportunity to participate in skills competitions. Therefore he only started his first competition at age 21 which made him qualify for EuroSkills 2016. To not feel disadvantaged by others' experience when working under time & quality pressure, Thomas is practicing a lot with his Mentor, Bernhard. He has already spent many weeks in his mentor's workshop in Salzburg, where they both train towards precision and speed. Thomas knows he needs to become comfortable with the example piece he will have to create in Gothenburg and get used to the tools from 3M, which make his work more accurate.

Expectations at EuroSkills

"I think I will get to meet nice people, make new connections and of course I plan on having fun up there. At the same time, I hope to improve my skills and improve my professional network."

Thomas is an ambitious young stonemason. At EuroSkills 2016, he expects from himself to be one of the best competitors and is highly motivated to try hard to meet his expectations.

Euroskills 2016