Miba opens €13 million training centre in Laakirchen

Industrial group Miba has opened a €13 million training centre in Laakirchen, in Upper Austria’s Gmunden district, ORF reported. The Base27 centre will train apprentices and provide continuing education for skilled employees.

The facility covers about 3,600 square metres at the Miba campus and includes new training workshops, training and workshop rooms, laboratories and an auditorium. The workshops have been equipped with new machinery.

The centre will also offer school students an introduction to technical careers. In special trial laboratories, they can learn about technical and craft-based professions and gain practical experience.

Miba said the investment responds to changes in industry, including digitalisation, automation and artificial intelligence, which are changing job profiles and the skills required of employees. Existing staff will therefore receive regular additional training alongside apprentices.

More than 200 political and business representatives attended the opening on Monday. Upper Austrian Governor Thomas Stelzer of the Austrian People’s Party said training and career prospects were the best responses to the shortage of skilled workers. He said the centre represented an investment in both Miba’s employees and Upper Austria as an industrial location.

The name Base27 refers to Miba’s history. In 1927, company founder Franz Mitterbauer, who had completed an apprenticeship himself, took over his former master’s metalworking shop. The business developed into today’s Miba and will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.

The Miba campus also includes a production plant, a childcare facility and the FutureLabs, where children and young people can take part in activities.