2nd Place • 2022

education

Teaching Despite the Lockdown

PriMa Kleinwalsertal (PriMa = Employees First)

How do you learn a trade when your workplace is closed due to COVID-19 lockdowns? Many apprentices in the hotel and restaurant industry—and some in retail as well—faced this challenge. A group of businesses in the Kleinwalsertal valley, supported by the “PriMa – Priorität Mitarbeitende” initiative from Kleinwalsertal Tourism, decided to “just go for it” and quickly set up a cross-company and cross-industry apprenticeship training program (covering both technical and personal skills). Fifteen training companies with 27 apprentices participated. This effort successfully qualified the next generation of workers and secured them for industries that were already struggling to find skilled workers.

More about PriMA

The “Training Despite Lockdown” project impressively demonstrates the power of the network of hotels, destinations, and partners/suppliers. Thanks to this collaboration, we were able to develop and implement a comprehensive, creative training program for the apprentices in a very short time. Everyone involved contributed their strengths to the fullest—and did so almost entirely for free. The energy and enthusiasm with which we worked together carried us through the lockdown and gave us a sense of purpose and motivation to keep going. For us, it was a real “pick-me-up” during this time, and the experience of seeing what’s possible when you just go for it was tremendous. Thank you to everyone who poured their heart and soul and energy into this! It was amazing—and we’d love to expand it further. Winning the DSTNCMP Award helps us do that in an even more professional way.

Patricia Wachter, General Manager of the Rosenhof in Kleinwalsertal

DSTNCMP Award²²