Lower Austria records nearly 20% rise in master qualifications

Some 560 people passed master craft or qualifying examinations in Lower Austria between July 2025 and July 2026, nearly 20% more than in the previous period, ORF reported. The total was 80 higher than a year earlier.

The most common master qualification was in gas, plumbing and heating technology, with 33 graduates. In all, candidates represented 40 industries. Their certificates were presented at a ceremony at the St. Pölten event centre.

One graduate, Lavinia Weissenböck from St. Veit an der Gölsen, worked for 11 years in childcare before changing careers to monument, facade and building cleaning. She passed her master examination last autumn. The hardest part at first, she told ORF, was overcoming her own uncertainty.

Weissenböck said recognition mattered in the cleaning industry, which she described as male-dominated. Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce president Wolfgang Ecker said the qualifications reflected hard work, enthusiasm for the profession and a strong commitment to further training. Jochen Flicker, head of the chamber’s trade and crafts division, said the master qualification offered career opportunities and was on a level with an academic bachelor’s degree under Austria’s National Qualifications Framework.

Among the graduates were clockmaker Jeffrey Treganza, who previously spent more than 20 years as an opera singer and now runs a workshop in Strasshof an der Nordbahn specialising in large clocks, and baker Karina Praxl. Praxl said she wanted to train apprentices and pass the craft on to younger generations.