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The stonemasons from Lviv in Western Ukraine have returned home. What they have left behind is their work: Plates for the stair stringers in the newly installed linden-tree-lined boulevard of the historic terrace garden in Kirchheimboladen and steles for the signs in front of the linden trees – all manufactured manually using traditional methods. The three weeks of their stay were filled with workshop activities, an excellent cultural program and encounters with their German peers at the Meisterschule für Handwerker in Kaiserslautern. Back in Lviv, they will return to their studies at the Ivan Trusch College. Ukraine, it is important to note, does not have an apprenticeship training program for stonemasons. Instead, the training is part of the degree program for sculptors. In the Palatinate region of Germany, the pieces they created will now be installed and the need for additional work will be assessed. Next fall, the next phase of this unique partnership with thornconcept and the Stonemasonry Department of the Meisterschule für Handwerker in Kaiserslautern, Germany will be launched. Coverage of the project by the German SWR broadcast station is available here (in German).

The carpentry training instructors at our partner schools in Yekaterinburg, Russia and Vinnytsia, Ukraine came together with no reservations. As dedicated carpenters, working together transcended everything. The group found connection in their joint desire to learn and exchange ideas. Practical exercises and workplace safety were the main focus of the workshop, which was highlighted by field trips to sites of interest for carpenters as well as a cultural program.

Several teachers and one master student from the Badische Malerfachschule (a vocational school for painters in Lahr, Germany) paid a visit to their counterparts at the Ural College for Technology and Entrepreneurship in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where they experienced an exciting week. On the agenda were a joint wall decoration project that involved challenging techniques, workshops with Russian paint manufacturers, a specialist conference and a cultural program that included excursions and a trip to the theater. Now, two coats of arms – one for each of the schools – adorn the wall of the Russian painter workshop.

The successful completion of the project to modernize the vocational training program for tile setters at the Humanitarian-Technical College in Krasnodar culminated in a festive celebration that garnered a great deal of public interest. Students and teachers demonstrated the work of the first fully trained apprentices and received their certificates of participation. The instructors from Jekaterinburg who had – in addition to the German master craftsmen – supported their colleagues in Krasnodar with the implementation of the project for the past years were also in attendance. This demonstrates the value of this project as an example of the interconnectedness of our projects and for the transfer of know-how within Russia. We will continue to monitor and support the project during follow-up.

https://youtu.be/CnEqVhFGGEQ

This year, five journeymen received awards presented jointly by the Eberhard-Schöck-Stiftung and the concrete industry’s vocational promotion center BFF (Berufsförderungswerk für die Beton- und Fertigteilhersteller e.V.) in Ostfildern.

To read more about the awards and recipients (in German), click here.