The 23-year-old Pierre Holze from Berlin has at the World Championship of Professions won the World Cup in Wallen for the national team of the German construction industry. The leading association of the German construction industry last won a gold medal for the German construction industry 43 years ago.

Bricklayer’s trowel, spirit level, full concentration. Absolutely accurate and under time pressure, the World Cup participants had to show what they’re made of over three days. Building the letters AT for Austria with a bricklayer’s trowel, the logo of the Austrian football association with wide joints and dark mortar for the eagle and the year 2022 in three dimensions with diagonal cuts – that was the task that the world’s best bricklayers in Salzburg solved. Pierre Holze from Berlin had the trowel in front and became world champion in the bricklaying competition.

Promotion of young talent and advertising

In the national team of the German construction industry, the best young German craftsmen fight for the title. Of the Central Association of the German Construction Industry based in Mitte – the leading association of the German construction industry with 35,000 construction companies – sends tilers, concrete and reinforced concrete workers, bricklayers, plasterers and carpenters to the competitions. The professional competitions are at the same time promotion of young people and advertising for the construction trades.

The world championship of professions was actually supposed to take place in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai, but was canceled due to China’s restrictive corona policy. For this reason, WorldSkills took place decentrally this year in 15 countries under the title “WorldSkills Competition 2022 Special Edition”. Over 1100 women and men from 57 countries and regions took part in 61 competition disciplines. The German national team participated with 36 professionals in 31 disciplines. The national team of the German construction industry competed in five competitions and won four medals. In addition to Pierre Holze’s World Cup victory in Mauern, Germany’s up-and-coming craftsman won three silver medals. The concrete builder duo with Jule Janson (22) from Baden-Württemberg and Jonas Hopf (23) from Thuringia fought for second place and received the silver medal for it. With Jule Janson, a woman is on the podium for the first time in the history of the concrete builder competition. In the previous competitions, the two Baden-Württembergers Yannic Schlachter (23) and Philipp Kaiser (23) were vice world champions in the tiler and carpenter competitions.

ascending trend

“Germany’s best young journeymen are at the start at WorldSkills. Pierre Holze fought brilliantly and gave everything. We pay him the utmost respect for that,” says Reinhard Quast, President of the Central Association of the German Construction Industry. He and the others in the national team are “an excellent figurehead for our industry and show how far you can go with good training, strong performance and the right commitment”. Around 80 percent of the apprentices are trained in the construction industry. The trend is rising: At the beginning of 2022, 2.7 percent more young people completed an apprenticeship in a construction trade than in the previous year, according to the Central Association of the German Construction Industry.