Vienna – “We have to think about the economy of the future”, says Wolfgang Anzengruber from “economy4future”. Although the focus is currently still on the corona crisis, the climate crisis will still be a “challenge for decades”. The initiative aims to sensitize apprentices and young employees to climate change. ÖBB, for example, is also involved – for board member Andreas Matthä, climate change has long been a reality: “We have to enlarge water drains on bridges so that high-voltage events do not flood the routes, and we have to paint rails white because of possible track warpage in the heat.”

Climate protection should therefore be brought closer to young people in their apprenticeship training, they should know their way around, because: “We lack the specialists,” says Michaela Reitterer, president of the hotelier association and hotel manager herself. ÖBB boss Matthä wants to anchor climate protection in the third year of apprenticeship. Because so far climate change has not occurred in apprenticeship training. Asfinag board member Hartwig Hufnagl feels motivated by his daughter to promote climate protection at the motorway operator.

The total of 25 top managers from domestic companies describe themselves as “CEOs for Future”. They represent 410,000 employees and more than 11,000 apprentices (10 percent of all Austrian apprentices). The aim is to come closer to the Paris climate goals through a future-oriented strategy in apprenticeship training. (ver)